Fred Daly | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 1973 | |
| Leader of the House | |
| In office 5 December 1972 – 11 November 1975 | |
| Preceded by | Don Chipp |
| Succeeded by | Ian Sinclair |
| Father of the House | |
| In office 2 November 1972 – 11 November 1975 | |
| Preceded by | Arthur Calwell |
| Succeeded by | Kim Beazley Sr. |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forGrayndler | |
| In office 10 December 1949 – 11 November 1975 | |
| Preceded by | New seat |
| Succeeded by | Tony Whitlam |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forMartin | |
| In office 21 August 1943 – 10 December 1949 | |
| Preceded by | William McCall |
| Succeeded by | William O'Connor |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1912-06-13)13 June 1912 Curabubulla, New South Wales |
| Died | 2 August 1995(1995-08-02) (aged 83) |
| Party | Australian Labor Party (NSW Branch) |
| Occupation | Clerk |
Frederick Michael DalyAO (13 June 1912 – 2 August 1995) was an Australian politician who served as a member of theHouse of Representatives from 1943 to 1975, representing theLabor Party. In theWhitlam government he wasLeader of the House,Minister for Services and Property, andMinister for Administrative Services.
Daly was born on 13 June 1912 inCurrabubula, New South Wales. He was the ninth of eleven children born to Margaret Jane (née Howard) and Michael Daly. His father, born in Ireland, was a farmer andgrazier.[1]
Daly grew up on his family's farming property of 8,000 acres (3,200 ha). After his father's death in 1923 the property was sold and the family moved to Sydney and settled inNorth Bondi. He attendedWaverley College, where he "hated school and failed most of his examinations". He left school at the age of 13 and began working forBennett & Wood, a bicycle manufacturing firm, as a messenger boy and clerk. During World War II Daly worked for theDepartment of Navy under the orders of theManpower Directorate. He was an official in the New South Wales branch of theFederated Clerks' Union of Australia.[1]
Daly joined the ALP'sWaverley branch in the early 1930s.[1] He was elected to theHouse of Representatives at the1943 federal election, winning the seat ofMartin from the incumbentUnited Australia Party MPBill McCall as part of a lanslide Labor victory. He transferred to the new seat ofGrayndler at the1949 election.[2]
Daly spent the next 23 years as an opposition frontbencher – one of a generation of Labor politicians whose career opportunities were greatly reduced by the splits and internal conflicts of the 1950s and 1960s. As a Catholic, and distraught with the Labor Leader, Evatt and his conduct at party caucus meetings, Daly had sympathies with the right-wing group which left the Labor Party in 1955 and later formed theDemocratic Labor Party, but he remained loyal to the party and defeated several attempts by the left to challenge his party endorsement.
Daly became well known as one of the great humorists of theHouse. Among his well-known lines were: "TheCountry Party has two election policies – one for people and one for sheep", and "He (Billy Snedden) couldn't lead a flock of homing pigeons".
From 1967 onwards Daly was a strong supporter ofGough Whitlam in his battles with the left wing of the party, and in 1969 Whitlam made him Shadow Minister for Immigration. But his support for retaining some elements of theWhite Australia Policy in Labor's platform caused Whitlam to remove him from the portfolio. When Labor won the1972 election – by which time Daly was theFather of the House – he becameMinister for Services and Property (in 1974 renamed Administrative Services), responsible for theDepartment of Services and Property.[3]
This put Daly in charge of, among other things, theAustralian Electoral Commission, and he tried to pass legislation which would have abolished the malapportionment of electorates in favour of rural areas (seeAustralian electoral system), but his bills were defeated in theSenate. After the1974 election he was able to get many of his reforms to the electoral system passed.
He was alsoLeader of the House throughout the Whitlam government.[4]
After the Whitlam government wasdismissed by theGovernor-General,Sir John Kerr in November 1975, Daly announced he would retire from parliament and not contest theDecember election. He delayed his announcement until the last minute, to ensure that Whitlam's sonTony Whitlam was able to secure endorsement for Grayndler without opposition.
In retirement Daly published two volumes of humorous memoirs,From Curtin to Kerr andThe Politician who Laughed. He remained active in the New South Wales Labor Party until his death in 1995, when he was accorded a state funeral at St Brigid's Church, Marrickville, attended by a huge crowd of Labor loyalists. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving person to have served as a member of parliament during theCurtin andForde governments and the surviving former MP with the earliest date of first election.
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| Parliament of Australia | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member for Martin 1943–1949 | Succeeded by |
| New division | Member for Grayndler 1949–1975 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the House 1972–1975 | Succeeded by |
| New title | Minister for Services and Property 1972–1975 | Succeeded by Himself as Minister for Administrative Services |
| New title | Minister for Administrative Services 1975 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Father of the House of Representatives 1972–1975 | Succeeded by |
