William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, QC (25 September 1862 – 28 October 1952), Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia, from 1915 to 1923.Over the course of his 51-year federal parliamentary career (and an additional seven years prior to that in a colonial parliament), Hughes changed parties five times: from Labor (1901–16) to National Labor (1916–17) to Nationalist (1917–30) to Australian (1930–31) to United Australia (1931–44) to Liberal (1944–52).