Lance Barnard

Lance Barnard
Barnard in 1973
Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
In office
5 December 1972 – 12 June 1974
Prime MinisterGough Whitlam
Preceded byDoug Anthony
Succeeded byJim Cairns
Minister for Defence
In office
5 December 1972 – 6 June 1975
Prime MinisterGough Whitlam
Preceded byDavid Fairbairn
Succeeded byBill Morrison
Deputy Leader of the Labor Party
In office
9 February 1967 – 12 June 1974
LeaderGough Whitlam
Preceded byGough Whitlam
Succeeded byJim Cairns
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Bass
In office
29 May 1954 – 2 June 1975
Preceded byBruce Kekwick
Succeeded byKevin Newman
Personal details
Born
Lance Herbert Barnard

(1919-05-01)1 May 1919
Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Died6 August 1997(1997-08-06) (aged 78)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Political partyLabor
Spouses
Doris Burston
(m. 1943; died 1960)
Jill Cant
(m. 1962)
RelationsClaude Barnard (father)
Michael Barnard (nephew)
Eric Barnard (cousin)
Harry Cant (father-in-law)
OccupationSchool teacher

Lance Herbert Barnard AO (1 May 1919 – 6 August 1997) was an Australian politician and diplomat. He was the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1974 and held senior ministerial office in the Whitlam government, most notably as the third deputy prime minister of Australia from 1972 to 1974.

Barnard was born in Launceston, Tasmania, into a prominent political family; his father Claude Barnard was also a federal government minister. He was a timber worker, soldier and schoolteacher before entering politics himself. He was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1954 federal election, winning the seat of Bass that his father had lost five years earlier. Barnard was elected deputy to Gough Whitlam in 1967 and became deputy prime minister following the ALP's victory at the 1972 election.

After an initial "duumvirate" in which he and Whitlam both held multiple portfolios, Barnard was appointed Minister for Defence. He subsequently oversaw the merger of several smaller departments into the Department of Defence. In 1974, Barnard lost the deputy leadership to Jim Cairns but remained in the defence portfolio. He resigned from parliament in 1975 to become ambassador to Norway, Finland and Sweden, triggering a by-election that resulted in the loss of his seat to the Liberal Party.