Peter Alexander Stephens (17 Aug 1899 - 31 Jan 1976) was a Georgeland Labour politician who served in a number of high political offices, and was the Leader of the Opposition from 1958 to 1967. He was the last Labour opposition leader never to become Prime Minister of Georgeland.
Born in Dannyburg in 1899, Stephens left school at 15 to work as a labourer and bricklayer. He became active in the trade union movement, and was the Long Island state president of the National Union of Bricklayers from 1932 to 1934. In that year, he was elected to the House of Commons as the Labour MP for Dannyburg East. He would hold the seat for thirty-six years.
While working for the union, Stephens began studying at the University of Long Island on a scholarship, graduating in 1936 with a Bachelor of Laws. In 1939, he was elevated from the backbench to Cabinet as Minister for Home Affairs by Fenton Thomas, of whom he was a staunch ally. In 1942, Stephens became Attorney General of Georgeland.
Stephens served as Attorney General from 1942 to 1945, during most of Georgeland's war period. As Attorney General he had jurisdiction over the Alien Internment Act and the Security Act, which permitted him to detain, without trial, anyone suspected of being an 'enemy alien'. Stephens presided over the internment of Italian and German Georgelanders from 1942 to 1944, a period that in recent years has become controversial.
In August 1945, Stephens was elevated to the Foreign Office. He was also made Minister for the Navy, and was simultaneously holding those jobs, and the Attorney General's portfolio, from August to December 1945. This made him Thomas' new effective deputy, sidelining the actual deputy leader, Nathan Keegan.
When Thomas retired from office in 1948 for health reasons, Stephens stood against Keegan to replace him, but was defeated. In the new government he lost the naval ministry but continued as foreign minister and, while Douglas Anderson was formally Keegan's deputy, continued to be seen as the government's second-most-senior member. Following Labour's election loss in 1950, Stephens was elected deputy leader of the Labour Party.
When Labour under Keegan returned to office in 1954, Stephens was appointed Minister for Trade and Industry, in which position he negotiated trade agreements with Japan and Indonesia, and established the National Arbitration Commission.
The Labour government was short-lived, and defeated in 1958 by the Conservatives under Stanley Baynes. Keegan continued as leader until 1960, at which point he stood down. Stephens was elected Leader of the Labour Party over George Loomis Scott, George McLeay and Albert Sutherland.
Stephens led Labour to a landslide defeat in 1962, in an election campaign based largely around foreign policy. Stephens, identified as being too close to the left-wing of his party, was a government target due to the recent Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of communism, which it exploited to win a second term. Stephens fended off a challenge from Loomis Scott, and retained his leadership. He led Labour to a second defeat in 1966, but cut the government's majority in half, positioning it for a victory in 1970. A few months after the 1966 election Stephens, then aged 66, stood down as leader but remained in the House of Commons. Victor Howard, who had not served in the Keegan government, replaced him as leader.
Stephens remained an MP until standing down at the 1970 election. He retired and published his memoirs. For the last few years of his life, Stephens was living in aged care, unable to speak or walk. He died in 1976 and was accorded a state funeral.
In his 1999 biography of Stephens, journalist David Messner referred to Stephens as "the greatest prime minister we never had". This echoed the sentiment expressed at Stephens' funeral, by then-prime minister Bradley Van Goen, who said the same thing. "Stephens," Messner wrote, "was everything you came to expect from a Labour prime minister. He was working-class to his bones, he was dedicated to the union movement, and he had a firm grasp of any policy you put in front of him. Had he fulfilled what many believed would be his destiny, we would know his name as more than a footnote in our history."