Living Former Prime Ministers
There are currently six living former prime ministers of Australia:
| Name | Term of office | Date of birth |
|---|---|---|
| Gough Whitlam | 1972–1975 | (1916-07-11) 11 July 1916 (age 96) |
| Malcolm Fraser | 1975–1983 | (1930-05-21) 21 May 1930 (age 82) |
| Bob Hawke | 1983–1991 | (1929-12-09) 9 December 1929 (age 82) |
| Paul Keating | 1991–1996 | (1944-01-18) 18 January 1944 (age 68) |
| John Howard | 1996–2007 | (1939-07-26) 26 July 1939 (age 73) |
| Kevin Rudd | 2007–2010 | (1957-09-21) 21 September 1957 (age 55) |
The greatest number of living former prime ministers at any one time was eight. This has occurred twice:
- Between 7 October 1941 (when John Curtin succeeded Arthur Fadden) and 18 November 1941 (when Chris Watson died), the eight living former prime ministers were Bruce, Cook, Fadden, Hughes, Menzies, Page, Scullin and Watson
- Between 13 July 1945 (when Ben Chifley succeeded Frank Forde) and 30 July 1947 (when Sir Joseph Cook died), the eight living former prime ministers were Bruce, Cook, Fadden, Forde, Hughes, Menzies, Page and Scullin.
Seven former prime ministers were alive between 18 November 1941 and 13 July 1945, and between 30 July 1947 and 13 June 1951.
Gough Whitlam has lived in the lifetime of every prime minister of Australia and has achieved a greater age than any other prime minister. The most recently deceased prime minister was John Gorton (1968–1971), who died on 19 May 2002.
Read more about this topic: Prime Minister Of Australia
Famous quotes containing the words prime ministers, living, prime and/or ministers:
“Sometimes it takes years to really grasp what has happened to your life. What do you do after you are world-famous and nineteen or twenty and you have sat with prime ministers, kings and queens, the Pope? What do you do after that? Do you go back home and take a job? What do you do to keep your sanity? You come back to the real world.”
—Wilma Rudolph (1940–1994)
“I never wanted to live an unembellished life, and I have never done it.... Living under such a compulsion has been like painting pictures of life, and I don’t take kindly to suggestions that I might have been less egotistically employed had I become a trained nurse.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“No woman in my time will be Prime Minister or Chancellor or Foreign Secretary—not the top jobs. Anyway I wouldn’t want to be Prime Minister. You have to give yourself 100%.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)
“Only men of moral and mental force, of a patriotic regard for the relationship of the two races, can be of real service as ministers in the South. Less theology and more of human brotherhood, less declamation and more common sense and love for truth, must be the qualifications of the new ministry that shall yet save the race from the evils of false teaching.”
—Fannie Barrier Williams (1855–1944)