Earle Page (Australian Biographical Monographs No.27)

Earle Page (8 August 1880 - 20 December 1961) was a surgeon, member of the House of Representatives from 1919-1961, leader of the emerging Country Party, and forged the first national coalition government in 1923. He served as federal minister across several portfolios including as Treasurer and later health where during the 1950s he laid the foundations of Australia's national health system.In addition, he represented Australia overseas, serving on the British War Cabinet during 1942. Page was a tireless advocate for a developed Australia, national planning, higher education, decentralisation, new states, and hydro-electric power. Despite his many achievements in both policy and politics, his impetuosity caused political misjudgements and sometimes the pursuit of impractical grandiose projects. His personal public attack on Robert Menzies in 1939 led to a fracturing of the coalition and his loss of leadership of the Country Party shortly thereafter - a position to which he was never to return despite decades of further service in parliament and as a minister in the second Menzies Government.-Scott Prasser, from the Introduction