William McWilliams | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 1stLeader of the Country Party | |
| In office 24 February 1920 – 5 April 1921 | |
| Deputy | Edmund Jowett |
| Succeeded by | Earle Page |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forFranklin | |
| In office 17 November 1928 – 22 October 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Alfred Seabrook |
| Succeeded by | Charles Frost |
| In office 16 December 1903 – 16 December 1922 | |
| Preceded by | New seat |
| Succeeded by | Alfred Seabrook |
| Member of theTasmanian House of Assembly forRingarooma | |
| In office 1893–1900 | |
| Preceded by | Samuel Hawkes |
| Succeeded by | Carmichael Lyne |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1856-10-12)12 October 1856 Bream Creek, Tasmania, Australia |
| Died | 22 October 1929(1929-10-22) (aged 73) Battery Point, Tasmania, Australia |
| Party | Revenue Tariff (1903–06) Anti-Socialist (1906–09) Liberal (1909–17) Nationalist (1917–20) Country (1920–22) Independent (1928–29) |
| Spouse | |
| Occupation | Journalist |
William James McWilliams (12 October 1856 – 22 October 1929) was an Australian journalist and politician. He was the inaugural leader of theCountry Party from 1920 to 1921 and served in federal parliament for nearly 20 years.
McWilliams was born inBream Creek, Tasmania, to Irish immigrants. He became a journalist at a young age, working in bothHobart andLaunceston, and becoming a newspaper editor and proprietor. McWilliams served in theTasmanian House of Assembly from 1893 to 1900. He was elected to theHouse of Representatives at the1903 federal election, standing as aRevenue Tariff candidate. He later affiliated with theLiberal Party andNationalist Party, before helping co-found the Country Party after the1919 election. McWilliams served briefly as the party's first leader before being replaced byEarle Page. He was defeatedin 1922, but won re-election as an independentin 1928 where he contributed to the defeat of the Bruce–Page government.
McWilliams was born on 12 October 1856 inBream Creek,Tasmania.[1] He was the third of five children of Eliza (née Caldwell) and Thomas James McWilliams.[2] His parents were Irish immigrants – members of theChurch of Ireland – who had immigrated to Tasmania in 1855 under an assisted passage scheme to establish the school atFranklin.[1]
McWilliams initially followed his parents into the teaching profession but at the age of 20 moved toHobart and began working as a journalist for theTasmanian Mail. He later relocated toLaunceston and worked forThe Examiner as a parliamentary reporter. In 1883 he was appointed editor ofThe Telegraph, "advocating unimproved land taxes and reduced custom duties".[1]
In 1896, McWilliams became the owner of theTasmanian News, a Hobart-based afternoon newspaper. The following year he helped found theSouthern Tasmanian Football Association, adopting the rules of theVictorian Football League.[1]
McWilliams was elected to theTasmanian House of Assembly at the1893 general election, winning the seat ofRingarooma. He was a supporter ofEdward Braddon's government and was re-elected at the1897 election, but lost his seatin 1900.[3]
In parliament, McWilliams advocated strongly on behalf of farmers, investigated the possibility of introducing sugarbeet farming into Tasmania, and helped found the Tasmanian Meteorological Bureau. He also supported giving women and ex-convicts the vote[4] but opposed theFederation, believing it should be delayed.
Switching to federal politics, McWilliams won theFranklin at the1903 election as aRevenue Tariffist supporting theFree Trade Party on most economic issues.
In parliament, McWilliams, like almost all his fellow members, strongly supported theWhite Australia Policy but opposed federal spending on issues such as the establishment of theHigh Court of Australia, a federal department of agriculture, a transcontinental railway, and federal acquisition of theNorthern Territory. As in state parliament, McWilliams was a staunch advocate on rural matters, supporting the timber industry and primary producers.
After the1919 federal election, which saw a number of candidates elected with the endorsement of state-based farmers' organisations, McWilliams was one of a five signatories to a letter drafted byWilliam Gibson calling for the formation of a parliamentaryCountry Party, alongsideHenry Gregory,William Hill andEdmund Jowett.[5] He was elected as the party's inaugural leader on 25 February 1920, with Jowett as his deputy, largely on the basis that he was the only member with prior experience in federal parliament.[6]
In his first parliamentary speech as leader, McWilliams proclaimed that the Country Party would end the "cursed system of centralization, under which hundreds of thousands of pounds are squandered in our city Departments, whilst necessary adjuncts to civilization, in the way of telephonic communication and mail services are denied to the residents of our back-blocks".[7] The Country Party had eleven members in theHouse of Representatives, giving it thebalance of power after Prime MinisterBilly Hughes'Nationalist Party government narrowly failed to win a majority.[6] On 10 March 1920, McWilliams demonstrated the Country Party's power by moving a motion to restrictsupply, which the government took as aconfidence motion and survived by only four votes. However, the party's policy agenda was driven by the party's whipEarle Page.[8]
On 5 April 1921, the parliamentary Country Party decided to review its leadership structure, declaring all leadership positions vacant. McWilliams was not a candidate to continue as leader, with Page elected nearly unanimously as his replacement. In his memoirs, Page recalled that McWilliams had "shown an increasing tendency to vote against the majority".[8] On one instance he had been the sole Country MP to vote in favour of a censure motion introduced by the ALP opposition.[1]
McWilliams was defeated in Franklin by the Nationalist candidateAlfred Seabrook at the1922 federal election, and unsuccessfully sought to reclaim his seat at the1925 election.[9] According toThe News, he reportedly sought the endorsement of the Nationalist Campaign Council, the Tasmanian body co-ordinating the anti-Labor candidates, but wished to be endorsed as a Country Party candidate rather than as a Nationalist.[10] After his narrow defeat he stated that he had had "organised capital attacking on one side and organised labour on the other".[11]
At the1928 election, McWilliams finally defeated Seabrook as an independent, joiningCountry Progressive MPPercy Stewart on the crossbench.[12] In the final months of the Bruce–Page government he regularly voted with the opposition, eventually joining Stewart and four dissident Nationalists in bringing down the government on a confidence motion in September 1929.[13] He was re-elected at the1929 election with an increased majority and by one account was "tacitly supported by Labor in the 1928 and 1929 elections".[14]
In 1893, McWilliams married Josephine Fullerton (née Hardy), who had previously been widowed. The couple had three children,[1] while a step-sonWilliam Fullerton also served in the Tasmanian House of Assembly.[15]
McWilliams died suddenly from a heart attack at his home inBattery Point on 22 October 1929, just over a week after his re-election to parliament and on the same day of the declaration of the poll. He had been in poor health during the election campaign and had been bedridden since the day of the election.[15][16]
| Parliament of Australia | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Electorate created | Member forFranklin 1903–1922 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member forFranklin 1928–1929 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| People | |
