Editing Joseph Cook (section)

===Treasurer===
[[File:James Guthrie - Sir Joseph Cook.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait of Cook by [[James Guthrie (artist)|James Guthrie]], c. 1920]]
In March 1920, Cook was appointed Acting Treasurer in the absence of [[William Watt (Australian politician)|William Watt]], who was attending a conference in London. Watt resigned by cable in June after falling out with Hughes. The position of Treasurer was initially offered to [[Stanley Bruce]], who declined it, and then to Cook, who reluctantly accepted.{{sfnp|Murdoch|1996|p=132}} He took office at the height of the post-war boom and was faced with high inflation, but also high unemployment as the economy attempted to absorb returned soldiers. Cook was a [[fiscal conservative]] by nature, preferring to limit government spending and keep taxes low. He brought down two [[Australian federal budget|budgets]] during his tenure, for the 1920–21 and 1921–22 financial years; both were primarily concerned with reducing inflation.{{sfnp|Hawkins|2009|p=77}} He was twice faced with significant revenue shortfalls, which he chose to fill primarily with overseas loans and only a small increase in taxation. He found both options distasteful, but preferred lower taxes – the opposite approach to that taken by Canada, which faced a similar situation.{{sfnp|Murdoch|1996|pp=133–134}}

Cook has been viewed as an orthodox but unimaginative treasurer whose conservatism with regard to government spending may have been unsuited to the needs of post-war reconstruction.{{sfnp|Murdoch|1996|p=135}} One notable initiative of his was the transfer of responsibility for issuing banknotes from the [[Department of the Treasury (Australia)|Treasury Department]] to the [[Commonwealth Bank of Australia]]. The bank's governor [[Denison Miller]] regarded this as "the first and most important step in the enlargement [of the Commonwealth Bank] into a national bank in every sense of the word".{{sfnp|Hawkins|2009|p=78}} Cook's final months in parliament were spent as acting prime minister, as Hughes was out of the country for five months attending the [[1921 Imperial Conference]] in London. In November 1921, it was announced that he would be appointed as Australia's [[Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom|High Commissioner to the United Kingdom]] in place of Andrew Fisher, whose term had ended earlier that year.{{sfnp|Murdoch|1996|p=132}}