Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council, 1930–1932
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council who served from 1930 to 1932 were appointed for life by the Governor on the advice of the Premier. This list includes members between the 1930 state election on 25 October 1930 and the 1932 state election on 11 June 1932.[1] The President was Sir John Peden.[2] The Premier Jack Lang had been seeking to swamp the council, however the Governor Sir Philip Game had declined to do so in November 1930, March, June and September 1931 when Lang sought 70 new members be appointed. In November 1931 Lang dropped his request to 25 new members and the governor agreed to the request.[3][4] This raised the number of members of the council from 85 to 110.
In 1930 Labor put forward two bills, one to repeal section 7A of the NSW Constitution (which prevented the abolition of the Council without a referendum), the other to abolish the Council. Believing that a referendum was necessary before the bills could become law, the Legislative Council permitted the bills to pass without a division on 10 December. Lang then announced his intention of presenting the bills for Game's Royal assent without a referendum. The following day, two members of the Legislative Council, Thomas Playfair and Arthur Trethowan, applied for and were granted an injunction by the Supreme Court preventing the President of the Council and the ministers from presenting the bills to the Governor without having held a referendum. Peden, despite being named as the first defendant, did not defend the case as he was convinced of section 7A's validity under the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865. The injunction was upheld by the Full Court of the Supreme Court on 23 December.[5] Lang's appeal to the High Court of Australia was rejected by a majority of the court in Attorney-General (New South Wales) v Trethowan on 16 March 1931.[6] Lang then appealed this decision to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, which delayed hearing the appeal until April 1932.[7] The appeal was finally resolved with the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on 31 May 1932 which dismissed the appeal.[8] The bills repealing Section 7A and abolishing the Legislative Council could not therefore be presented to the Governor for assent as they had been passed in a referendum.[7]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ a b John Creed died on 30 October 1930.
- ^ a b Michael Connington died on 3 December 1930.
- ^ a b Sydney Innes-Noad died on 11 February 1931.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m The NSW branch of Labor was expelled from the party in March 1931, with 12 members joining Federal Labor.
- ^ a b The United Australia Party was founded in April–May 1931
- ^ a b James Hoad died on 12 June 1931.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Took their seat on 24 November 1931 as a result of Lang flooding the council.
- ^ a b Donald Grant took his seat on 25 November 1931.
- ^ a b Ellen Webster took her seat on 26 November 1931.
- ^ a b John Davoren took his seat on 1 December 1931.
- ^ a b Sir Alfred Meeks died on 6 March 1932.
- ^ a b Hugh McIntosh vacated his seat due to bankruptcy on 11 May 1932.
- ^ The changes to the composition of the council, in chronological order, were: Creed died,[a] Connington died,[b] Innes-Noad died,[c] Labor split,[d] UAP founded,.[e] Hoad died,[f] 25 appointed,[g] Grant appointed,[h] Webster appointed,[i] Davoren appointed,[j] Meeks died,[k] and McIntosh bankrupted.[l]
References
[edit]- ^ "Part 3 Members of the Legislative Council" (PDF). NSW Parliamentary Record. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
- ^ "Part 10 Officers of the Parliament" (PDF). NSW Parliamentary Record. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 26 November 2020.[m]
- ^ McMinn, W G. "Game, Sir Philip Woolcott (1876–1961)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ^ "A bombshell". The Sydney Morning Herald. 21 November 1931. p. 12. Retrieved 5 August 2021 – via Trove.
- ^ Trethowan v Peden [1930] NSWStRp 90, (1930) 31 SR (NSW) 183 (23 December 1930), Supreme Court (Full Court).
- ^ Attorney-General (New South Wales) v Trethowan [1931] HCA 3, (1931) 44 CLR 394, High Court.
- ^ a b Morrison, A S (1984), "Dominions Office Correspondence on the New South Wales Constitutional Crisis 1930-1932", PhD thesis, London
- ^ Attorney-General (New South Wales) v Trethowan [1932] UKPC 1, [1932] AC 526; [1932] UKPCHCA 1, (1932) 47 CLR 97, Privy Council (on appeal from Australia)
