Joseph Benedict "Ben" Chifley (; 22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951) was an Australian politician who was the
16th Prime Minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He became
Leader of the Labor Party on the death of
John Curtin, and went on to retain a majority in both Houses of the
Australian Parliament at the
1946 election, before his government was defeated at the
1949 election. The radical reforming nature of the Chifley Government was such that, between 1946 and 1949, the Australian Parliament passed 299
Acts, a record up until then, and well beyond the previous record of the Labor Government of
Andrew Fisher, which passed 113 Acts from 1910 to 1913.