Harold Holt: Difference between revisions

The Right Honourable Harold Holt CH
17th Prime Minister of Australia Elections: 1966
In office 26 January 1966 – 17 December 1967
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor‑General	Lord Casey
Preceded by	Robert Menzies
Succeeded by	John McEwen
Party leadership positions Leader of the Liberal Party In office 26 January 1966 – 17 December 1967 Deputy William McMahon Preceded by Robert Menzies Succeeded by John Gorton Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party In office 26 September 1956 – 26 January 1966 Leader Robert Menzies Preceded by Eric Harrison Succeeded by William McMahon
Cabinet posts Treasurer of Australia In office 10 December 1958 – 26 January 1966 Prime Minister Robert Menzies Preceded by Arthur Fadden Succeeded by William McMahon Minister for Labour and National Service In office 19 December 1949 – 10 December 1958 Prime Minister Robert Menzies Preceded by Jack Holloway Succeeded by William McMahon In office 28 October 1940 – 7 October 1941 Prime Minister Robert Menzies Arthur Fadden Preceded by New position Succeeded by Eddie Ward Minister for Immigration In office 19 December 1949 – 24 October 1956 Prime Minister Robert Menzies Preceded by Arthur Calwell Succeeded by Athol Townley Minister in charge of Scientific and Industrial Research In office 28 October 1940 – 28 August 1941 Prime Minister Robert Menzies Preceded by Herbert Collett Succeeded by John Dedman
Constituencies Member of the Australian Parliament for Higgins In office 10 December 1949 – 17 December 1967 Preceded by New division Succeeded by John Gorton Member of the Australian Parliament for Fawkner In office 17 August 1935 – 10 December 1949 Preceded by George Maxwell Succeeded by Bill Bourke
Personal details
Born	Harold Edward Holt (1908-08-05)5 August 1908 Stanmore, New South Wales, Australia
Died	17 December 1967(1967-12-17) (aged 59) Cheviot Beach, Victoria, Australia
Cause of death	Drowning (presumed)
Political party	United Australia (until 1945) Liberal (after 1945)
Spouse	Zara Dickins Fell ​ (m. 1946)​
Children	3
Education	Randwick Public School Nubba State School Abbottsholme College, Killara Wesley College, Melbourne
Alma mater	University of Melbourne
Profession	Lawyer, politician
Signature

Harold Edward Holt, CH, PC (/hoʊlt/;^[1] 5 August 1908 – 17 December 1967), was an Australian politician who served as the 17th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1966 until his disappearance and presumed drowning. He was born in Stanmore, New South Wales and won a scholarship to study law at the University of Melbourne. Holt went into business as a solicitor, during which time he joined the United Australia Party (UAP). In 1935, aged just 27, he was elected to parliament for Fawkner. He held this seat until 1949, when he transferred to Higgins. Holt spent 32 years in Parliament, including many years as a senior Cabinet Minister, but was Prime Minister for only 22 months before he disappeared in December 1967 while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria and was presumed drowned.

As Minister for Immigration (1949–1956), Holt was responsible for the relaxation of the White Australia policy. As Treasurer (1958–1966) under Robert Menzies, he initiated major fiscal reforms including the establishment of the Reserve Bank of Australia, and launched and guided the process to convert Australia to decimal currency. As Prime Minister, he oversaw landmark changes including the decision not to devalue the Australian dollar in line with the British pound, and the 1967 constitutional referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Australians voted in favour of giving the Commonwealth power to legislate specifically for indigenous Australians. He controversially expanded Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, with the slogan "All the way with LBJ".

Holt was born in Sydney on 5 August 1908, in his parents' home at 58 Cavendish Street, Stanmore. He was the first of two sons born to Thomas James Holt and the former Olive May Pearce^[a] – his younger brother Clifford was born in 1910.^[2] On his father's side, Holt was descended from James Holt, a cobbler from Birmingham, England, who had arrived in New South Wales in 1829.^[3] His paternal grandfather, Thomas Holt Sr., owned a large property in Nubba, and was twice elected mayor of nearby Wallendbeen. Holt's father had left home at a young age to support the family, training as a schoolteacher in Sydney and eventually finding work as a physical education teacher at the Cleveland Street School in Surry Hills. Holt's mother was born in Eudunda, South Australia, and had Cornish, English, German, and Irish ancestry; her sister was the actress Vera Pearce.^[2]

In 1914, Holt's parents moved to Adelaide, where his father became the licensee of a hotel in Payneham. He and his brother stayed behind in Sydney, living with an uncle and attending Randwick Public School. In late 1916, Holt was sent to live with grandparents in the country, where he briefly attended the Nubba State School. He returned to Sydney the following year, and for three years was enrolled at Abbottsholme College, a private school in Killara; his parents separated around that time.^[2] In 1920, Holt began boarding at Wesley College, Melbourne. He was a popular and talented student, winning a scholarship in his final year and graduating second in his class. Holt generally spent school holidays with his relatives in Nubba or with schoolmates, rather than with his parents – his father had begun working as a talent agent, touring the country on the Tivoli circuit, while his mother died in 1925. He was 16 at the time, and was unable to attend the funeral.^[4]

In 1927, Holt began studying law at the University of Melbourne, living at Queen's College on a scholarship. He represented the university in cricket and football, and was also active in various student organisations, serving as president of the Law Students' Society and of the Queen's College social club. Holt won prizes for oratory and essay-writing, and was a member of the inter-university debating team. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1930. Holt's father – living in London – invited to him to continue his studies in England, but he declined the offer.^[5]

Holt served his articles of clerkship with the firm of Fink, Best, & Miller. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in late 1932, and opened his own legal practice the following year. However, clients during the Depression were scarce and frequently underpaid, so Holt lived in a boardinghouse and often relied upon the hospitality of friends.^[5] Drawing on his family connections in show business, he eventually accepted an offer to become secretary of the Victorian Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association, a film industry lobby group. In this capacity he appeared several times before the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration.^[6][7] This had a positive affect on his own practice, and he eventually took on two partners, first Jack Graham and later James Newman.^[8] The firm of Holt, Graham, & Newman was dissolved in 1963, following a financial dispute and subsequently reconstituted as Holt, Newman, & Holt, with Holt's son Sam as the new addition. Holt's involvement in the practice declined once he entered politics and ceased altogether in 1949, although he did not formally retire until assuming the prime ministership.^[9]

While developing his legal practice, Holt was drawn to politics and joined the Prahran branch of the United Australia Party (UAP) in 1933. At the 1934 federal election, Holt unsuccessfully contested the safe Labor seat of Yarra for the UAP, running against former Prime Minister James Scullin. In March 1935, he unsuccessfully contested the safe Victorian state Labor seat of Clifton Hill. Holt stood again for the federal House of Representatives on 17 August 1935, at a by-election for the marginally conservative seat of Fawkner, this time successfully. At age 27, he was one of Australia's youngest-ever MPs.^[10]

Holt opposed socialism, but favoured a more equitable distribution of resources.^[11] From his maiden speech onwards, he emphasised the importance of physical fitness.^[12]

In 1939, Holt's mentor Robert Menzies became Prime Minister after the sudden death of the incumbent Joseph Lyons and the short-term caretaker ministry of Sir Earle Page. Holt's energy, dedication and ability earned him rapid promotion and in April 1939, he was appointed Minister without Portfolio assisting the Minister for Supply and Development.^[6] In October 1939, he became Minister in charge of Scientific and Industrial Research, and during November–December 1939, he was Acting Minister for Air and Civil Aviation.

In May 1940, without resigning his seat, Holt joined the Second Australian Imperial Force as a gunner, but a few months later three Cabinet ministers and several of Australia's top military staff were killed in an air crash in Canberra. Menzies recalled Holt from the army, appointing him Minister without Portfolio assisting the Minister for Trade and Customs, and his recall earned him the ironic nickname "Gunner Holt."

In October 1940, Holt was elevated to Cabinet, becoming Minister for Labour and National Service, and one of his most significant achievements in this portfolio was the introduction of child endowment in 1941.^[6]

In August 1941, a front-bench revolt forced Menzies to resign as Prime Minister. He was replaced by the Country Party leader Arthur Fadden. Holt was among those who withdrew their support, although he never revealed his reasons for doing so. In October 1941, the UAP was ousted by a no-confidence vote; the ALP leader John Curtin was invited to form a new government. By 1944, the UAP had effectively disintegrated and in 1945, Menzies formally established a new political party, the Liberal Party of Australia, and forged an enduring coalition with the Country Party. Holt was one of the first members to join the Liberal Party's Prahran branch.

After eight years in opposition, the Coalition won the federal election of December 1949 and Menzies began his record-setting second term as Prime Minister. In a redistribution held ahead of that election, Holt's majority in Fawkner nearly disappeared. He transferred to Higgins, one of several new seats created in the 1949 redistribution. The seat was created as a safe Liberal seat; it had been carved out of the wealthier portions of Fawkner. Holt won it easily. He was appointed to the prestigious portfolios of Minister for Labour and National Service (1949–1958; he had previously served in this portfolio 1940–41) and Minister for Immigration (1949–1956), by which time he was being touted in the press as a "certain successor to Menzies and a potential Prime Minister". In Immigration, Holt continued and expanded the massive immigration programme initiated by his ALP predecessor, Arthur Calwell. However, he displayed a more flexible and caring attitude than Calwell, who was a strong advocate of the White Australia policy.^[6] He also had ministerial responsibility for the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.^[13]

Holt excelled in the Labour portfolio and has been described as one of the best Labour ministers since Federation. Although the conditions were ripe for industrial unrest—Communist influence in the union movement was then at its peak, and the right-wing faction in Cabinet was openly agitating for a showdown with the unions—the combination of strong economic growth and Holt's enlightened approach to industrial relations saw the number of working hours lost to strikes fall dramatically, from over two million in 1949 to just 439,000 in 1958.

Holt fostered greater collaboration between the government, the courts, employers and trade unions. He enjoyed good relationships with union leaders like Albert Monk, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions; and Jim Healy, leader of the radical Waterside Workers Federation;and he gained a reputation for tolerance, restraint and a willingness to compromise, although his controversial decision to use troops to take control of cargo facilities during a waterside dispute in Bowen, Queensland in September 1953 provoked bitter criticism.

Holt's personal profile and political standing grew throughout the 1950s. He served on numerous committees and overseas delegations, he was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1953,^[6] and in 1954 he was named one of Australia's six best-dressed men. In 1956, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and became Leader of the House,^[6] and from this point on, he was generally acknowledged as Menzies' heir apparent.

In December 1958, following the retirement of Arthur Fadden, Holt succeeded him as Treasurer.^[6] Holt had little knowledge or interest in economics, but the job cemented his position as Menzies' likely successor.^[14] As Treasurer, Holt relied strongly on the advice of Treasury secretary Roland Wilson.^[15] His achievements included major reforms to the banking system (originated by Fadden) – including the establishment of the Reserve Bank of Australia – and the planning and preparation for the introduction of decimal currency. It was Holt who convinced Cabinet to call the new currency the "dollar" rather than the "royal".^[16]

The economy Holt inherited was growing strongly, aided by the opening of new iron ore mines.^[17] However, in 1959, inflation was running at 4.5% and Treasury was alarmed. Holt was reluctant to act, but in November 1960 introduced a deflationary package of tax changes. He also reluctantly agreed to an interest rate rise by the Reserve Bank. These measures became known as the "credit squeeze" or the "Holt jolt". The economy went into recession, but unemployment was still relatively low.^[18]

The credit squeeze brought the Coalition dangerously close to losing the 1961 election, with the Coalition being returned with a precarious one-seat majority. There were calls for Holt to be sacked, but he retained Menzies' support.^[19] He later described 1960–61 as "my most difficult year in public life". Most of the deflationary measures were reversed in 1962.^[16]

In later budgets, Holt retreated to his Queensland holiday home while it was being prepared.^[20] After presenting the budget, he took an overseas trip. In contrast to his colleagues, he travelled widely in South-East Asia, which he believed was key to Australia's future prosperity.^[21]

Holt continued as federal Treasurer until January 1966, when Menzies finally retired. With Menzies' support, Holt was elected leader of the Liberal Party, thus becoming Prime Minister after having been an MP for almost 31 years.

Holt was sworn in as Prime Minister on Australia Day, 26 January 1966. His original Cabinet included:

• John McEwen (CP) Deputy Prime Minister, leader of the Country Party, Minister for Trade and Industry;
• William McMahon (LP), Treasurer;
• Paul Hasluck (LP), Minister for External Affairs;
• Allen Fairhall (LP), Minister for Defence;
• Charles Adermann (CP) Minister for Primary Industry;
• Charles Barnes (CP), Minister for Territories;
• David Fairbairn (LP), Minister for National Development;
• Senator John Gorton (LP), Minister for Works and Minister in Charge of Commonwealth Activities in Education and Research;
• Senator Denham Henty (LP), Minister for Supply;
• Alan Hulme (LP), Postmaster-General;
• Les Bury (LP), Minister for Labour;
• Malcolm Fraser (LP), Minister for the Army.

Holt's term in office covered almost exactly the tumultuous calendar years of 1966–67. His short tenure meant that he is remembered mainly for the dramatic circumstances of his disappearance and presumed death. His untoward demise has tended to obscure the major events and political trends of his term in office, especially his role in maintaining and expanding Australia's military commitment to the Vietnam War.

The transfer of power from Menzies was smooth and unproblematic, and at the federal election later that year, the electorate overwhelmingly endorsed Holt, giving the Holt-McEwen Coalition government a 41-seat majority, the largest in Australian history up to that time with 57% of the two-party preferred vote.

Stylistically, Holt was more informal and contemporary than Menzies, and his wife accompanied him into the political spotlight.^[22]

Holt fought his first and only general election as Prime Minister on 26 November 1966, focusing his campaign on the issue of Vietnam and the supposed Communist threat in Asia. Labor leader Arthur Calwell bitterly opposed Australia's part in the war and promised that Australian troops would be brought home if Labor won office, and opposition to overseas service by Australian conscripts had long been part of ALP policy.

Australia's involvement in Vietnam still enjoyed majority popular support and Calwell's anti-war campaign did not garner much positive reaction from voters. The Coalition scored a stunning victory over the ALP, winning many former ALP seats and sweeping back into power with the largest parliamentary majority since Federation. The Liberal Party increased its numbers from 52 to 61, and the Country Party from 20 to 21, with Labor dropping from 51 to 41 seats, and one Independent. Among the new members elected was future federal Treasurer Phillip Lynch.

Aftermath

In early 1967, Arthur Calwell retired as ALP leader and Gough Whitlam succeeded him. Whitlam proved a far more effective opponent, both in the media and in parliament, and Labor soon began to recover from its losses and gain ground, with Whitlam repeatedly besting Holt in Parliament.^[6] By this time, the long-suppressed tensions between the Coalition partners over economic and trade policies were also beginning to emerge. Throughout his reign as Liberal leader, Menzies had enforced strict party discipline but, once he was gone, dissension began to surface. Some Liberals soon became dissatisfied by what they saw as Holt's weak leadership. Alan Reid asserts that Holt was being increasingly criticised within the party in the months before his death, that he was perceived as being "vague, imprecise and evasive" and "nice to the point that his essential decency was viewed as weakness".

Political historian James Jupp says that, in domestic policy, Holt identified with the reformist wing of Victorian liberalism.

One of Holt's most notable achievements was to initiate the process of breaking down the preferential White Australia policy by ending the distinction between Asian and European migrants and by permitting skilled Asians to settle with their families. He also established the Australian Council for the Arts (later the Australia Council), which began the tradition of federal government support for Australian arts and artists, an initiative that was considerably expanded by Holt's successor John Gorton.

In 1967, the Holt Government amended the constitution to alter section 51 (xxvi) and remove section 127. This gave the federal government the power to legislate specifically for Indigenous Australians, and also allowed indigenous people to be enumerated in the census. The constitutional amendments required a referendum before they could be enacted, which passed with over 90% of the vote; it remains the largest referendum majority in Australian history. Holt personally considered the amendments unnecessary and mostly symbolic, but thought they would be well received by the international community (particularly Asia).^[23] According to Barrie Dexter, he was privately shocked by the referendum result, having been uncertain whether it would even pass.^[24]

Holt came to regard the referendum as indicative of a shift in the national mood. In the following months, he toured Aboriginal communities and consulted with indigenous leaders, including Charles Perkins and Kath Walker. Despite opposition from state governments,^[b] he created a new Office of Aboriginal Affairs within the Prime Minister's Department, as well as a new advisory body called the Council of Aboriginal Affairs (chaired by H. C. Coombs).^[25] According to Coombs and Paul Hasluck, Holt had little interest in indigenous affairs before becoming prime minister.^[c] Despite this, he brought about a fundamental shift in the way policy was handled, paving the way for the federal government to assume many of the powers and responsibilities that had previously been the preserve of the states. Indigenous academic Gary Foley has said that Holt's death was a setback for Aboriginal people, as his successors did not show the same commitment to the framework that he established.^[28]

The Australian dollar came into circulation on 14 February 1966, only a few weeks after Holt's prime ministership began. It replaced the non-decimal Australian pound. In 1967 the Holt government made the historic decision not to depreciate the dollar in line with Britain's depreciation of the pound sterling, a break with previous policy, which was strongly opposed by Country Party leader John McEwen.^[29]

During Holt's term in office, the Vietnam War was the dominant foreign policy issue. The Holt government significantly increased Australia's military involvement in the war and Holt vehemently defended U.S. policy in the region. He also forged a close relationship with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, whom he had first met in Melbourne in 1942.^[30]

Whilst Holt stated that his friendship with Johnson was reflected in the strong relationship between Australia and the US, former Australian diplomat and foreign-affairs expert Alan Renouf was more cynical in his assessment of the situation. In the chapter on Vietnam in The Frightened Country, his 1979 book on Australian foreign policy, Renouf bluntly suggested that Holt was in effect "seduced" by Johnson, and notes that the Johnson administration criticised the Holt government for not doing enough and repeatedly pressured Australia to increase its troop commitment in Vietnam.

On taking office, Holt declared that Australia had no intention of increasing its commitment to the war, but just one month later, in December 1966, he announced that Australia would treble its troop commitment to 4,500, including 1,500 National Service conscripts, creating a single independent Australian task force based at Nui Dat.

Five months later, in May, Holt was obliged to announce the death of the first National Service conscript in Vietnam, Private Errol Wayne Noack, aged 21. Just before his disappearance, Holt approved a further increase in troop numbers, committing a third battalion to the war—a decision that was subsequently revoked by his successor, John Gorton.

Holt visited the US in late June 1966, where he gave a speech in Washington in the presence of President Johnson. Reported in The Australian on 1 July 1966, Holt's speech concluded with a remark which has come to be seen as encapsulating his unquestioning support for Johnson, for America's Vietnam policy and for continued Australian military involvement in the Vietnam War:

"You have in us not merely an understanding friend but one staunch in the belief of the need for our presence in Vietnam.

"We are not there because of our friendship, we are there because, like you, we believe it is right to be there and, like you, we shall stay there as long as it seems necessary to achieve the purposes of the South Vietnamese Government and the purposes that we join in formulating and progressing together.

"And so, sir, in the lonelier and perhaps even more disheartening moments which come to any national leader, I hope there will be a corner of your mind and heart which takes cheer from the fact that you have an admiring friend, a staunch friend that will be all the way with LBJ."

Following his Washington visit Holt went on to London and in a speech there given on 7 July he was sharply critical of the UK, France and other U.S. allies that had refused to commit troops to the Vietnam War.

On 20 October 1966, President Johnson arrived in Australia at Holt's invitation for a three-day state visit, the first to Australia by a serving U.S. President. The tour marked the first major anti-war demonstrations staged in Australia. In Sydney, protesters lay down in front of the car carrying Johnson and the Premier of New South Wales, Robert Askin (prompting Askin's notorious order to "Run over the bastards"). In Melbourne, a crowd estimated at 750,000 turned out to welcome Johnson, although a vocal anti-war contingent demonstrated against the visit by throwing paint bombs at Johnson's car and chanting "LBJ, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?".

In June 1967, Holt travelled to London via Canada, where on 6 June he opened the Australian Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal;^[31] on the return journey, the Holts stayed with the Johnsons at the presidential summer resort, Camp David, in Maryland.^[32]

Considered controversial, Australia signed an agreement with the United States in December 1966 that would allow the U.S. to establish a secret strategic communications facility at Pine Gap in the Northern Territory. On 20 December 1966, Holt announced that Australia's military force in Vietnam was to be increased again to 6,300 troops plus an additional twelve tanks, two minesweepers and eight bombers.

Holt was not the Anglophile that Robert Menzies had been. One of his early actions as prime minister was to request the removal of a statue of King George V from Parliament House.^[33] In September 1967, he announced that his government would use section 74 of the constitution to remove the potential for High Court cases to be appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; this did not become law until after his death.^[d] Holt was a strong supporter of the Commonwealth of Nations, and believed its member states had moral obligations to one another – particularly Britain, as the former colonial power.^[34] However, his relationship with Harold Wilson, the British prime minister, was somewhat frosty. He repeatedly lobbied Wilson to maintain a strong British presence "East of Suez", in order to complement American efforts, and in early 1967 received assurances that no reduction was being contemplated.^[35] However, by the middle of the year Wilson had announced that Britain intended to close all of its bases in Asia by the early 1970s (except for Hong Kong).^[36] In response to Australia's concerns, it was suggested that a British naval base could be established in Cockburn Sound; Holt rejected this outright.^[37] He felt that Wilson had deliberately misled him as to his intentions,^[38] and gave a controversial press conference in which he accused the British of adopting a "Lotus Land" attitude.^[39]

Holt's popularity and political standing was damaged by his perceived poor handling of a series of controversies that emerged during 1967. In April, the ABC's new nightly current affairs program This Day Tonight ran a story which criticised the government's decision not to reappoint the Chair of the ABC Board, Sir James Darling. Holt responded rashly, questioning the impartiality of the ABC and implying political bias on the part of journalist Mike Willesee (whose father Don Willesee was an ALP Senator and future Whitlam government minister), and his statement drew strong protests from both Willesee and the Australian Journalists' Association.

In May, increasing pressure from the media and within the Liberal Party forced Holt to announce a parliamentary debate on the question of a second inquiry into the 1964 sinking of HMAS Voyager to be held on 16 May. The debate included the maiden speech by newly elected NSW Liberal MP Edward St John QC, who used the opportunity to criticize the government's attitude to new evidence about the disaster. An enraged Holt interrupted St John's speech, in defiance of the parliamentary convention that maiden speeches are heard in silence; his blunder embarrassed the government and further undermined Holt's support in the Liberal Party. A few days later, Holt announced a new Royal Commission into the disaster.

In October the government became embroiled in another embarrassing controversy over the alleged misuse of VIP aircraft, which came to a head when John Gorton (Government Leader in the Senate) tabled documents that showed that Holt had unintentionally misled Parliament in his earlier answers on the matter. Support for his leadership was eroded even further by his refusal to sack the Minister for Air, Peter Howson, in order to defuse the scandal, fuelling criticism from within the party that Holt was "weak" and lacked Menzies' ruthlessness. Much of the blame for the episode within the Public Service was visited upon Sir John Bunting, Secretary of the Prime Minister's Department, although other figures such as the Deputy Secretary Peter Lawler were able to protect themselves. One of John Gorton's first acts upon becoming Prime Minister in January 1968 was to sideline Bunting by creating a separate Department of the Cabinet Office with Bunting as its head, and replaced him with Lenox Hewitt.

In November 1967, the government suffered a serious setback in the Senate election, winning just 42.8 per cent of the vote against Labor's 45 per cent. The coalition also lost the seats of Corio and Dawson to Labor in by-elections. Alan Reid says that, within the party, the reversal was blamed on Holt's mishandling of the VIP planes scandal. Disquiet was growing about his leadership style and possible health problems.^[6]

On the morning of Sunday 17 December 1967, Holt, his neighbour and rumoured lover Marjorie Gillespie, her daughter Vyner, Vyner's boyfriend Martin Simpson and Gillespie family friend Alan Stewart drove down from Melbourne to see the lone British yachtsman Alec Rose sail through Port Phillip Heads. Around noon, the party drove to one of Holt's favourite swimming and snorkelling spots, Cheviot Beach on Point Nepean near Portsea, on the eastern arm of Port Phillip Bay. Holt decided to go swimming, although the surf was high and fierce.^[6][40][41]

Holt began swimming, but he soon disappeared from view. Fearing the worst, the others raised the alert. A large contingent of police, Royal Australian Navy divers, Royal Australian Air Force helicopters, Army personnel from nearby Point Nepean and local volunteers converged on the beach. This quickly escalated into one of the largest search operations in Australian history,^[42] but no trace of Holt could be found.

Two days later, on 19 December 1967, the government made an official announcement that Holt was thought to be dead. The Governor-General Lord Casey sent for the Country Party leader and Coalition Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen, and he was sworn in as caretaker Prime Minister until such time as the Liberals elected a new leader. A memorial service was held on 22 December, which was attended by numerous foreign leaders.

Media speculation focused on the possibility that Holt took his own life. Journalist Ray Martin made a documentary, Who Killed Harold Holt?, screened in November 2007, which suggested that Holt might have committed suicide. The Bulletin magazine featured a story supporting the suicide theory. In support of the view, The Bulletin quoted fellow cabinet minister Doug Anthony who spoke about Holt's depression shortly before his death.^[43] The suggestion of suicide was emphatically rejected by Holt's son Sam, by his biographer Tom Frame, and by former prime minister and Holt's Cabinet colleague at the time, Malcolm Fraser.^[44]

On 23 October 2008, ABC Television broadcast the one-hour docu-drama The Prime Minister is Missing, starring Normie Rowe as Holt.^[45] This programme covered much of the same ground as Martin's documentary, but rejected Martin's suggestion that Holt had committed suicide, stating that he was a vocal 'life affirmer'. The documentary also noted that Holt was suffering from a shoulder injury and had been advised not to swim.

In 1983, an alternative theory was advanced by writer Anthony Grey who suggested Holt had been a spy for the People's Republic of China and a Chinese submarine had picked him up. This theory was widely ridiculed.^[40]

No official federal government inquiry was conducted, on the grounds that it would have been a waste of time and money. Neither was an inquest held at the time because Victorian law did not provide any mechanism for reporting presumed or suspected deaths to the Victorian Coroner. However, the Commonwealth and Victoria Police compiled a 108-page report into the disappearance, including statements from all eyewitnesses and details of the search operation.^[46]

The law in Victoria was changed in 1985, and in 2003 the Victoria Police Missing Persons Unit formally reopened 161 pre-1985 cases in which drowning was suspected but no body was found. Holt's son Nicholas Holt said that after 37 years there were few surviving witnesses and no new evidence would be presented. On 2 September 2005, the Coroner's finding was that Holt had drowned in accidental circumstances on 17 December 1967.^[47]

Holt's disappearance immediately triggered speculation about his possible replacement as prime minister. Liberal deputy leader and Treasurer William McMahon planned a party room meeting on 20 December to elect a new leader, intending to stand for the position himself. However, this was pre-empted by the Country Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister, John McEwen, who publicly declared on the morning of 18 December that the Country Party would not serve under McMahon. McEwen and McMahon had had a long-running dispute about trade policies. On 19 December, after discussions with McEwen and various Liberal MPs, the Governor-General Richard Casey commissioned McEwen as caretaker Prime Minister on the understanding that his commission would continue only so long as it took for the Liberals to elect a new leader. The Liberal leadership ballot was rescheduled for 9 January 1968. As it turned out, McMahon did not stand, and Senator John Gorton was elected, replacing McEwen as Prime Minister^[48] on 10 January 1968.

In terms of party politics, one of the most significant features of Holt's brief tenure as PM is that his unexpected death triggered the beginning of an unprecedented period of turmoil within the Liberal Party and a rapid decline in the Coalition's electoral fortunes. For twenty-two years, from its founding in 1944 to his retirement in 1966, the Liberal Party had had only one leader, Robert Menzies. After Menzies' retirement, the party had three leaders in six years: Holt, Gorton and William McMahon. In December 1969, the ALP under Gough Whitlam came within four seats of ending the Coalition's hold on power before winning a convincing victory in 1972.

While at university, Holt met Zara Dickins, the daughter of a Melbourne businessman; there was an "instant mutual attraction". They made plans to marry once Holt had graduated, but after a financial dispute chose to separate.^[49] Zara went on a trip to Britain, where she was introduced to James Fell, a British Indian Army officer. She accompanied Fell to India, and then in early 1935 returned to Australia where Holt again proposed marriage. She declined his offer, and married Fell a short time later, going to live with him in Jabalpur. Holt had entered parliament by that time, and was soon being profiled as "the most eligible bachelor in parliament". He briefly dated Lola Thring, the daughter of his father’s business partner, F. W. Thring, but his widowed father was also interested in her (to his son's "disgust"). Tom Holt married Lola in 1936, and their daughter Frances (Harold's half-sister) was born in 1940; Tom Holt died in 1945.^[50]

In 1937, Zara returned to Australia to give birth to her first child, Nicholas. She had two more children, twins Sam and Andrew, in 1939. Her marriage with Fell broke down a short time later, and in late 1940 she returned to Australia permanently and resumed a relationship with Holt. Their relationship did not become public for some time, in order to avoid Holt being implicated in Zara's divorce proceedings.^[51] They eventually married on 8 October 1946, at Zara's parents' home on St Georges Road, Toorak.^[52] They initially lived on nearby Washington Street, but in 1954 bought the St Georges Road house.^[53] Holt legally adopted Zara's three children, and as young men they changed their surname to his.^[54] According to biographer Tom Frame, it was an "open secret" that Holt was the biological father of the twins, as they shared his physical appearance and had been conceived at a time when Zara was known to have been in Melbourne.^[51]

Zara Holt was a successful businesswoman, owning a chain of dress shops, and out-earned her husband even as prime minister. It was her success that allowed the couple to purchase two holiday homes, one at Portsea, Victoria, and the other at Bingil Bay, Queensland.^[55] She nonetheless made sacrifices for her husband's political career, accompanying him on all but one of his overseas trips, which could last for weeks.^[e] After her husband's death, Zara remarried in 1969 to one of his Liberal Party colleagues, Jeff Bate.^[57] She was widowed a second time in 1984, and died in 1989. In a 1988 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Zara stated that her husband had carried on "dozens" of extramarital affairs.^[58] In his biography of Holt, Tom Frame wrote: "I have not included the names of women with whom Holt allegedly had a sexual relationship because I was unable to confirm or deny that most of these relationships took place […] by their very nature they were always illicit and Holt was very discreet."^[59]

Holt has been described as an "apathetic agnostic". He was baptised Anglican, attended Methodist schools, and married with Presbyterian forms, but neither he nor his wife had any interest in religion.^[60] His lack of religiosity apparently had little impact on his political prospects, and was not generally remarked upon.^[61] Alick Downer believed that Holt's thoughts "lay in this world not the next".^[62] According to his friend Simon Warrender, he "was an agnostic whose raison d'être was dedication to his career".^[63] Holt had a reputation as something of a fatalist, and frequently quoted from Andrew Marvell's carpe diem poem "To His Coy Mistress".^[64] He was also fond of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If—", which Warrender said he used as a "guiding light in his political and private life".^[63]

Harold Holt is most famously commemorated by the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre^[65] in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris. The complex was under construction at the time of Holt's disappearance, and since he was the local member, it was named in his memory. The irony of commemorating a man who is presumed to have drowned with a swimming pool has been a wry source of amusement to many Australians.^[66]

In 1968, the newly commissioned United States Navy Knox class destroyer escort USS Harold E. Holt (FF-1074) was named in his honour. She was launched by Holt's widow Dame Zara at the Todd Shipyards in Los Angeles on 3 May 1969, and was the first American warship to bear the name of a foreign leader.

In 1969, a plaque commemorating Holt was bolted to the seafloor off Cheviot Beach after a memorial ceremony. It bears the inscription:

In memory of Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, who loved the sea and disappeared hereabouts on 17 December 1967.

Other memorials include:

• the suburb of Holt, Australian Capital Territory;
• the Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt;
• the Division of Holt, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives in Victoria;
• a sundial and garden in the Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne;
• a wing for boarders at Wesley College, Melbourne;
• the Harold Holt Fisheries Reserves – five protected areas in southern Port Phillip, located at Swan Bay, Point Lonsdale, Mud Islands, Point Nepean and Pope's Eye (The Annulus).
• a memorial stone within the 'Prime Ministers Garden' of Melbourne General Cemetery

By way of a folk memorial, he is recalled in the Australian vernacular expression "do a Harold Holt" (or "do the Harry"), rhyming slang for "do a bolt" meaning "to disappear suddenly and without explanation", although this is usually employed in the context of disappearance from a social gathering rather than a case of presumed death.^[67]

In the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 1968, Holt's widow Zara Holt was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, becoming Dame Zara Holt DBE.^[68] She later married for a third time, to a Liberal party colleague of Holt's, Jeff Bate, and was then known as Dame Zara Bate.

• First Holt Ministry
• Second Holt Ministry
• Declared death in absentia
• List of missing people

• Frame, Tom (2005). The Life and Death of Harold Holt. Allen & Unwin / National Archives of Australia. ISBN 1-74114-672-0.
• Griffen-Foley, Bridget (2003). Party Games: Australian Politician and the Media from War to Dismissal. Text Publishing, Melbourne. ISBN 1-877008-64-8.
• Hancock, Ian (2000), 'Harold Edward Holt,' in Michelle Grattan (ed.), Australian Prime Ministers, New Holland, Sydney, pages 270–285. ISBN 1-86436-756-3
• Holt, Dame Zara (1968), My Life and Harry. An Autobiography, Herald and Weekly Times, Melbourne.
• Hughes, Colin A (1976), Mr Prime Minister. Australian Prime Ministers 1901–1972, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, Ch.19. ISBN 0-19-550471-2
• Inglis, Kenneth S. (1983). This Is The ABC. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84258-5.
• Jupp, James (1982). Party Politics in Australia 1966–81. George Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
• Reid, Alan (1969). The Power Struggle. Shakespeare Head Press, Sydney.
• Reid, Alan (1971). The Gorton Experiment: The Fall of John Gorton. Shakespeare Head Press, Sydney.
• Renouf, Alan (1979). The Frightened Country. Macmillan Australia, Melbourne. ISBN 0-333-25248-9.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harold Holt.

• Harold Holt – Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia
• Hancock, I. R. (1996). "Holt, Harold Edward (1908–1967)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
• Harold Holt and LBJ on YouTube Video Documentary