Has to be Curtin. Bloke loved Australia and Australians, unlike UN Traitor Albanese, who despises them. Led brilliant WWII effort, pivoted Australia away from Mother England, who else would have dared. Gave his life for his country, with no regrets. Incredibly, a third of Perth turned out to farewell him, nobody made them, you wouldn't get 100 for Albanese.

Steve S,

Good point.
Golf Whitlam was the second of two Prime Ministers that actually served active service.

Whereas John Howard lived with his Mother until he was 55 yo.(Nothing wrong with Mothers).

Toss up between Howard and Hawke.

Hawke dragged Australia out of the sclerosis that was 1960s and 70s welfarism and set it on the path to becoming an outward looking economy that saw its future in trading with the world rather than relying on the protection of backward and union controlled manufacturing.

But as a Labor man he could only go so far. Howard completed the job with things like the GST, revamping the Federal-State relationship and further opening us to the world.

Every PM since then has lacked the backbone to continue the works of Howard and Hawke and we are now paying the price for that.

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Curtin... being a winning wartime leader doesn't automatically make you a good leader. There was nothing Curtin did that wasn't the least any barely competent PM would have done. His greatest claim to fame was the pivot to the US and away from Mother England, but following the fall of Singapore there was no alternative but to beg the US for salvation. Whoever was PM at the time would have done the same.

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Whitlam is in the running for the worst PM. He'd openly admitted he had no interest in or understanding of economics. The 30 years prior to Whitlam becoming PM was one of continued economic growth and Whitlam's whole shtick was how to better spend the new wealth even though he didn't know where it came from. When hit with the oil crisis , rather than adjust his policies for the new reality as Hawke and Howard later did, he carried on regardless, resulting in massive unemployment and out of control inflation. The very people he purported to help suffered the most. But he did buy 'Blue Poles' and that makes his supporters swoon.

"John Howard lived with his Mother until he was 55 yo."

He married in his early 30s and lived with his wife and kids. Even if he lived with his mother, she died when he was 47 so unless he had her mummified there's no way he lived with her 'til he was 55.

Where do you people get this rubbish from? Do you just make it up or do you think papers like Mad Magazine are authoritative?

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"He [Gough] was removed by the CIA.... "

In the 1970s that type of thinking was barely tenable. But as new and better data emerged, its clear that the CIA played no part in the removal of Gough. But some prefer the myth to the truth.

In fact Gough was removed by the people at the polling booth (twice) because, as a PM he was an utter failure.

If its a question of "A man for his times", having read extensively about all Prime Ministers, my vote goes to (1) John Curtain, (2) Edmund Barton and (3) Gough Whitlam. The best for the Liberal Party is 'Pig Iron' Bob Menzies, although rather mediocre at best, but did serve for a very long period, and did make some useful post war changes, the worst for the Liberals was Billy "Big Ears" McMahon, totally out of his depth. For Labor, James Scullin was the worse, failed the leadership test, when true leadership in an economic crises was required more than ever. The worse ever PM had to be Stanly Bruce from the National Party, a total conservative, the spats and straw hat man, in 1929 spats and straw haat had been our of fashion for 30 years Stanly failed dismally, when the heat was on. The best bloke who never was PM and should have been, was Jack "The Big Fella" Lang, Premier of NSW 1925/27 and 1930/32 was the leader of Lang Labour (1931 to 1950) in the Federal Parliament. Lang understood the conditions created by the Great Depression, and had a plan, the Lang Plan to tackle the problems. Years later it was shown that Lang was absolutely correct, and others to a man, from both side of politics were totally wrong.

What makes the best, are those that served at a time of crises or rapid change, and were able to positively respond for the good of the nation. The worse are the ineffective, negative men who failed to adapt in a positive way to changing circumstance

It a natural given that academic background people such as bureaucrats, education & media go for the party with the most generous benefits & handouts of Dollars that Government has fleeced off those who actually worked & competed to make enough profit to top up the coffers !
This opportunistic mentality of course results in decline of private enterprise & general economic downturn. The other, just as insidious factor is the creeping loss of of economic & social foresight in a great percentage of a Nation's civil servants. The present is showing indisputable signs of that with the selling of some the peoples' rights via the purchase of votes !