PM Fisher neglected by history: PM Rudd

(AAP) Andrew Fisher, Australia's and the world's first Labor prime minister, has been unfairly overshadowed, his present-day counterpart says.

But Mr Fisher was a true nation-builder, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on the
centenary of Mr Fisher's first day as PM of Australia in 1908.
"Today ... we have the opportunity to begin to right an historical wrong, the
relative neglect of this great Australian prime minister," Mr Rudd said in an
address at Old Parliament House.
Mr Fisher, who died in 1928, was the first head of a majority Australian government,
the first head of a Labor government anywhere in the world and one who did much to
strengthen a young nation's security, economy and social foundations, he said.
"Perhaps Fisher's legacy has suffered from comparison with the larger-than-life
personalities of his contemporaries like the volatile, irascible and versatile Billy
Hughes.
"Fisher's life and story and his political legacy are, in fact, substantial."
Mr Fisher was born in Scotland in grinding poverty, emigrating to Australia in 1885.
He served as a Queensland and then federal MP. In the tempestuous politics of the
era, he served three terms as PM - November 1908 to June 1909, April 1910 to June
1913 and then September 1914 to October 1915.
Although he was not prime minister when World War I was declared, he was in charge
during the period when war seemed most likely. He famously promised Australia would
support Britain to the 'last man and last shilling'.
Mr Fisher's achievements in nation-building were nothing short of extraordinary, Mr
Rudd said.
They included ending bitter national rivalry by choosing Canberra as the site of the
national capital, establishing the Australian navy and the Commonwealth Bank,
introducing an age pension and the transnational railway.
"These are substantial institutional reforms," Mr Rudd said.
"His history is with us today. Many of these ideas had been talked about for years.
"Andrew Fisher's great achievement was to turn those ideas into action."
A spokeswoman for Mr Rudd's office later said John Watson was Australia's first
Labor prime minister, briefly leading a coalition government in 1904.
Mr Fisher headed the first national Labor majority government, she said.