Editing Billy Hughes (section)

===1920–1923===
[[File:Billy Hughes, 1927 (George Lambert).png|thumb|[[Parliament House, Canberra|Parliament House]] portrait of Hughes by [[George Washington Lambert]], 1927]]
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Hughes demanded that Australia have independent representation within the newly-formed [[League of Nations]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-12-07 |title=Australia's last brick of nationhood |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-12-07/australia27s_last_brick_of_nationhood/41892 |access-date=2024-02-15 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}</ref> Despite the rejection of his conscription policy, Hughes retained popularity with Australian voters and, at the [[1919 Australian federal election]], his government was comfortably re-elected.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Election Speeches · Billy Hughes, 1919 · Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House |url=https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1919-billy-hughes |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au}}</ref>

After 1920, Hughes's political position declined. Many of the more conservative elements of his own party never trusted him because they thought he was still a socialist at heart, citing his interest in retaining government ownership of the Commonwealth Shipping Line and the [[Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia)|Australian Wireless Company]]. However, they continued to support him for some time after the war, if only to keep Labor out of power.

A new party, the Country Party (known since 1975 as the [[National Party of Australia]], was formed, representing farmers who were discontented with the Nationalists' rural policies, in particular Hughes's acceptance of a much higher level of tariff protection for Australian industries, that had expanded during the war, and his support for [[price controls]] on rural produce. In the New Year's Day Honours of 1922, Hughes's wife Mary was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (GBE).

At the [[1921 Imperial Conference]], Hughes argued unsuccessfully in favour of renewing the [[Anglo-Japanese Alliance]].<ref>Dorsey D. Jones, 'The Foreign Policy of William Morris Hughes of Australia', ''The Far Eastern Quarterly'', Vol. 2, No. 2 (February 1943), p. 160.</ref>

At the [[1922 Australian federal election]], Hughes gave up the seat of Bendigo and transferred to the upper-middle-class [[Division of North Sydney]], thus giving up one of the last symbolic links to his working-class roots.  The Nationalists lost their outright majority at the election. The Country Party, despite its opposition to Hughes's farm policy, was the Nationalists' only realistic coalition partner.  However, party leader [[Earle Page]] let it be known that he and his party would not serve under Hughes. Under pressure from his party's right wing, Hughes resigned in February 1923 and was succeeded by his Treasurer, [[Stanley Bruce]].<ref name=adb/> His eight-year tenure was the longest for a  prime minister until [[Robert Menzies]] passed him in 1957.

Whilst the incumbent prime minister, Hughes switched seats at both the 1917 and 1922 elections, the only prime minister to have done so not once but twice. All other elections have seen the prime minister re-contest the seat that they held prior to the election.