Labour History

Endnotes

1.It is noted that there is a wide body of contemporary research examining systems of political management at the state and federal levels in Australia. Particular attention has been directed towards the changing application of Westminster principles, and, how public servants are viewed and located within modern governance frameworks. Studies on New Public Management and public service responsiveness have also received significant attention. SeeR.A.W Rhodes,J. Wanna andP. Weller, ‘Reinventing Westminster: How public executives reframe their world’, Policy and Politics, vol.30, no.4, 2008, pp.461-79;J. Halligan, ‘Beyond Westminster: The new machinery of subnational government: Political management in the Australian states’, Public Money & Management, vol.21, no.2, 2001, pp.9-15;P. Fairbrother andJ. O’Brien ‘Introduction: Changing public sector industrial relations in the Australian state’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol.59, no.4, December2000, pp.54-59;C. Matheson, ‘Are clerical workers proletarian? A case study of the Australian Public Service’, The British Journal of Sociology, vol.58, no.4, 2007, pp.577-602. Google Scholar

2.R. Markey, ‘Organisational consolidation and unionateness in the NSW Public Service Association, 1899-1939’, Labour History, no.99.November2010, pp.97-114;P. Sheldon, ‘A middle class union: The early years of the NSW PSA’, Labour & Industry, vol.2, no.1, 1989, pp.103-11. Google Scholar

3.D. Rawson, ‘The frontiers of trade unionism’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol.1, no.2, May1956, p.203. Google Scholar

4.For a brief analysis of the progression of Master and Servant Acts, seeMary Gardiner, ‘His master’s voice? Work Choices as a return to master and servant concepts’, Sydney Law Review, vol.31, no.1, March2009, pp.57-67. Google Scholar

5.The term ‘public servants’ will hereafter refer to Victorian state departmental public servants. Railways workers, police officers and teachers are not the specific focus of this paper. Regulations governing the political rights of public servants were historically not uniform across all sectors of the public service. For an introduction to the development of political rights in the police force seeR.K. Haldane, The People’s Force: A History of the Victoria Police,Melbourne University Press,, 1986. In the field of education, seeR. Biddington, ‘Emerging teacher unionism in Victoria, 1872-1879’, Journal of Further and Higher Education, vol.4, no.2, 1980, pp.12-20. Google Scholar

6.Rudolph Plehwe, ‘Political rights of Victorian public employees’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol.42, no.3, 1983, p.374. Google Scholar

7. Government Gazette, 8January1867, p.38, Regulation 21. Google Scholar

8.The principles underpinning the British public service evolved over hundreds of years and can be traced back to the English revolution of 1688. The repercussions of this event were lasting as the British parliament deemed it necessary to consolidate its victory and deprive the Crown of its most powerful entitlement, the right to nominate public servants. Over the next century a long drawn list of legislative statutes sought to disarm the Crown by removing public servants from the arena of politics. The political rights of a public servant to vote and to sit in parliament were revoked. It was the first in many steps towards ensuring the Crown be subject to greater accountability. Despite this, the Crown continued to exert influence through a network of personal relationships with members of parliament. SeeJ. Christoph, ‘Political rights and administrative impartiality in the British civil service’, The American Political Science Review, vol.51, 1957, p.77;G.K. Clark, ‘“Statesmen in disguise”: reflexions on the history of the neutrality of the civil service’, The Historical Journal, vol.2, 1959, pp.19-39;E. Cohen, The Growth of the British Civil Service, 1780-1939,George Allen and Unwin,, 1941;R. Butler, ‘The evolution of the civil service: A progress report’, Public Administration, vol.71, no.3, pp.395-406;D. Eaton, Civil Service in Great Britain: A History of Abuses and Reforms and their Bearing upon American Politics,Harper & Brothers, 1880;R. Moses.The Civil Service of Great Britain,Columbia University Press,, 1914;H. Parris, Constitutional Bureaucracy: The Development of British Central Administration Since the Eighteenth Century,Allen and Unwin,, 1969, pp.34-35;S. Northcote, andC. Trevelyan, Report on the Organisation of the Permanent Civil Service, 23rdNovember1853, Submitted to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty inFebruary1854, Paper1713. Google Scholar

9. Port Phillip Patriot, 6May1839. Google Scholar

10.For an analysis of the settlement of the Port Phillip District, seeH. Turner, A History of the Colony of Victoria: Volume 1,Heritage Publications,, 1973, pp.96-300;J. Grant andG. Serle, The Melbourne Scene: 1803-1956,Hale and Iremonger,, 1978, pp.3-68;W.H. Archer, ‘ sir John O’shanassy: A Sketch’, Melbourne Review, vol.8, no.31, July1883. Specific to the social and political upheaval in Central Europe, seeW. Langer, The Revolutions of 1848,Harper Torchbook,, 1969. Google Scholar

11.SeeGeoffrey Serle, The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria, 1851-1861,Melbourne University Press,, 1963. Google Scholar

12.R. Gollan, Radical and Working Class Politics: A Study of Eastern Australia, 1850-1910,Melbourne University Press,, 1967, p.15. Google Scholar

13.Foster held the position of Colonial Secretary, Stawell Attorney-General, and Childers Auditor General. Childers later returned to Britain and became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Both Nicholson and Haines ascended to the Premiership during their political careers;Charles Parkinson, Sir William Stawell and the Making of Victoria’s Constitution,Australian Scholarly Publishing,, 2004, pp.14-45. Google Scholar

14. Argus, 21January1854. Google Scholar

15.SeeC. Parkinson, Sir William Stawell, pp.14-45;D. Powell, ‘The wild colonial barrister: Sir William Stawell and the taming of the Victorian legal profession’, Victorian Historical Journal, vol.73, no.2, September2002, pp.155-180. Google Scholar

16.SeeH. Turner, A History of the Colony of Victoria, Volume2,Heritage Publications,, 1973. p.54;C. Francis, ‘stawell, Sir William Foster (1815-1889)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol.6,Melbourne University Press,, 1976, pp.174-77. Google Scholar

17. Argus, 14March1889. Google Scholar

18. Age, 25February1857. Google Scholar

19.C. Francis, ‘stawell, Sir William Foster’;C. Parkinson, ‘William Foster Stawell and the making of Victoria’s constitution’, Victorian Historical Journal, vol.77, no.2, 2006, p.114. Google Scholar

20.Ibid. Google Scholar

21.TheArgus, 13February1854, noted that Stawell was a ‘very rich man’ designing a system for other rich men. Google Scholar

22.Report from the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on a New Constitution for the Colony, Legislative Council, Votes and Proceedings, 1853-54, vol.3, no.11, p.10; Weekly Report of Divisions in Committee of the Whole Council, Legislative Council, Votes and Proceedings, 1853-54, vol.1, p.94;George Webb(ed.), Debate in the Legislative Council of the Colony of Victoria on the Second Reading of the New Constitution Bill,Caleb Turner,, 1854, p.73. Google Scholar

23.Webb(ed.), Debate in the Legislative Council, pp.73-74. Google Scholar

24.Ibid, p.74. Google Scholar

25.Ibid, p.74. Google Scholar

26. Argus, 14October1854. Google Scholar

27.Serle, The Golden Age, pp.188-214. Google Scholar

28.G. Serle, ‘The Victorian Legislative Council, 1856-1950’, Historical Studies, Australia and New Zealand, vol.6, no.22, May1954. Google Scholar

29.Cabinet Minutes, 1856, cited inC. Duffy, My Life in Two Hemispheres, Volume2,Fisher Unwin,, 1898, pp.205-6. Google Scholar

30.Legislative Assembly, Votes and Proceedings, 1856-57, vol.1, A-No.29 Google Scholar

31.Serle, The Golden Age, p.311. Google Scholar

32. Argus, 27November1866. Google Scholar

33.Cited inPlehwe, ‘Political rights of Victorian public employees’, p.365. Google Scholar

34.R. Murray, 150 Years of Spring Street,Australian Scholarly Publishing,, 2007, p.19;Serle, The Golden Age, p.312;M. Cannon, Melbourne After the Gold Rush,Loch Haven, Main Ridge,, 1993, p.123. Google Scholar

35.The Chartist influence was reflected in the views of gold rush generation migrants. The wealthy aristocracy opposed the movement. SeeD. Dunstan, ‘Naked democracy: Governing Victoria 1856-2006’, Victorian Historical Journal, vol.77, no.2, November2006, p.232. Google Scholar

36.Duffy, My life in Two Hemispheres, p.173. Google Scholar

38. Victorian Hansard, vol.4, 8Feburary1859, pp.820-21. Google Scholar

39.Hearn was one of the four original professors at the University of Melbourne. He would later go on to become Chancellor of the university and then Leader of the Legislative Council. SeeA. Sutherland, ‘William Edward Hearn’, Argus, 28April1888;G. Blainey, A Centenary History of the University of Melbourne,Melbourne University Press,, 1957;Douglas B. Copland, W.E. Hearn: First Australian Economist,Melbourne University Press,, 1935. Google Scholar

40.‘Royal Commission into the Public Service’, 1852, cited inR.S. Parker, Public Service Recruitment in Australia,Melbourne University Press,, p.17. Google Scholar

41. Government Gazette, 25March1859, p.545;21April1859, p.845;22October1864, p.273;1December1865, p.2789. Such was the concern that public servants were engaged in political activity that this regulation was reprinted in theGovernment Gazetteintermittently over the next decade. Google Scholar

42. Government Gazette, 8January1867, p.38, Regulation 21. Google Scholar

43.Ibid., Regulation 23. Google Scholar

44.Etched into the memories of public servants were the events of8January1878– which became known as‘Black Wednesday’– when Premier Graham Berry dismissed hundreds of public servants, together with county court judges, coroners, crown prosecutors and police magistrates. Berry’s enemies in the Legislative Council had refused to pass the government’s budget. Berry was also suspicious that senior public servants were conspiring against him with his conservative opponents and this was the premier’s dramatic response. For an overview of the events, seeA. Deakin, The Crisis in Victorian Politics, 1879-1881,Melbourne University Press,, 1957. Google Scholar

45.Victorian Public Service Association, Progress Report of the Public Service Association for the Seven Months Ending 17th February, 1886, p.27. Google Scholar

46. Government Gazette, 3February1896, pp.602-608. Google Scholar

47.Turner, A History of the Colony of Victoria, p.291. Google Scholar

48.George Tibbits remarked that‘Nothing approaching the arrogant pride of the 1880s was to return to Melbourne until the prosperous 1960s’; cited inMelbourne on my Mind,Australian Broadcasting Commission,, 2001, p.81. Google Scholar

49.L. Benham andJ. Rickard, ‘Masters and servants: The Victorian railway strike of 1903’, inJ. Iremonger,J. Merritt andG. Osborne(eds), Strikes: Studies in Twentieth Century Australian Social History,Angus and Robertson in association with the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History,, 1973, p.3. Google Scholar

50.R. Wright, A People’s Counsel: A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856-1990,Oxford University Press,, 1992, p.121. Google Scholar

51.F. Eggleston, State Socialism in Victoria,P.S. King & Son,, 1932. Google Scholar

52. Age, 18December1891. Google Scholar

53.J. Lack, ‘David Syme and the three stooges? The bust premiers: James Munro, William Shiels and JB Patterson, 1890-1894’, inP. Strangio andB. Costar(eds), The Victorian Premiers, 1856-2006,Federation Press,, 2006, p.98. Google Scholar

54.Ibid., pp.98-105. Google Scholar

55.M. Cannon, The Land Boomers: The Complete Illustrated History,Melbourne University Press,, 1995, p.49. Google Scholar

56. Argus, 17February1894; SeeR. Ellery inVictorian Public Service Association Annual Report, 1891and1892. Google Scholar

57. Age, 18September1893;Argus, 8April1891. Google Scholar

58.Patterson cited inJ. Lack, ‘David Syme and the three stooges?’, p.104;Age, 28Marchand2April1893. Google Scholar

59. Argus, 19April1893. Google Scholar

60. Age, 15August1894. Google Scholar

61.SeeAge, editorials, 22-26May1883. Google Scholar

62.The 1894 budget, drafted by TreasurerG.D. Carter, was a disaster for Patterson. The Premier was so embarrassed he offered to withdraw it. Google Scholar

63.B. Hoare, Looking Back Gaily,E.W. Cole, Book Arcade,, 1927, p.181. Google Scholar

64.E. Shann cited inW.A. Sinclair, Economic Recovery in Victoria 1894-1899,Australian National University Social Science Monographs,, 1956, p.41. Google Scholar

65.Turner, A History of the Colony of Victoria, p.320. Google Scholar

66. Age, 7September1894. Google Scholar

67.Ibid. Google Scholar

68. Argus, 6September1894. Google Scholar

69. Age, 6September1894;J. Rickard, Class and Politics: New South Wales, Victoria and the Early Commonwealth, 1890-1910,Australian National University Press,, 1976, p.87. Google Scholar

70.F. Eggleston andE. Sugden, George Swinburne: A Biography,Angus and Robertson,, 1931, p.46. Google Scholar

71.P. Love, Labour and the Money Power: Australian Labour Populism 1890-1950,Melbourne University Press,, 1984;R. Markey, ‘Populism and the formation of a Labor Party in New South Wales, 1890-1900’, Journal of Australian Studies, no.20, May1987, pp.38-48. Google Scholar

72.Love, Labour and the Money Power, p.29. Google Scholar

73. Argus, 17December1896. Google Scholar

74.R. Gollan ‘Nationalism, the labour movement and the Commonwealth’, inGordon Greenwood(ed.), Australia: A Social and Political History,Angus and Robertson,, 1955, p.148. Google Scholar

75. Argus, 17December1896. Google Scholar

76.Eggleston andSugden, George Swinburne, p.101-103;Wright, A People’s Counsel, p.121. Google Scholar

77.SeeRickard, Class and Politics, pp.65-67. Google Scholar

78.SeeN. Dyrenfurth andM. Quartly, ‘Fat Man v. “the People”: Labour intellectuals and the making of oppositional identities, 1890-1901’, Labour History, no. 92, May2007, pp.31-56;Love, Labour and the Money Power, p.31. Google Scholar

79. Tocsin, 2October1897. Google Scholar

80.For an early account of the movement and its origins, seeH.L. Nielson, The Voice of the People,Arbuckle, Waddell & Fawckner,, 1902;Wright, A People’s Counsel, p.119. Google Scholar

81.T. Waters, Much Besides Music: Memoirs of Thorold Waters,Georgian House,, 1951, pp.68-69. Google Scholar

82.Eggleston andSugden, George Swinburne, p.81. Google Scholar

83.Benham andRickard, ‘Masters and servants’, p.2. Google Scholar

84.Rickard, Class and Politics, p.168. Google Scholar

85.Benham andRickard, ‘Masters and servants’, p.4. Google Scholar

86.Murray Smith, Argus, 18November1903. Google Scholar

87. Argus, 27November1901;J.M. Bennett andA.G. Smith, ‘Irvine, Sir William Hill (1858-1943)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol.9,Melbourne University Press,, 1983, pp.439-41. Google Scholar

88. Victorian Parliamentary Debates(VPD), vol.100, Legislative Assembly (LA), 5August1902, p.375. Google Scholar

89.‘Dominance of Civil Servants’, New Zealand Tablet, vol.30, no.35, 28August1902, p.18. Google Scholar

90.Bride, cited inJ. Rickard, ‘“Iceberg” Irvine and the politics of anti-labor’, inStrangio andCostar(eds), The Victorian Premiers, p.121. Google Scholar

91. AgeandArgus, 11August1902; This marked the beginning of the large-scale defection of public servants to the Labor Party in Victoria. SeeRickard, Class and Politics, p.190. Google Scholar

92.Ibid., p.193. Google Scholar

93. Argus, 11August1902. Google Scholar

94.Eggleston andSugden, George Swinburne, p.99. Google Scholar

95. Argus, 11December1902. Google Scholar

96. Kilmore Free Press, 23April1903. Google Scholar

97.Rickard, Class and Politics, p.191. Google Scholar

98. Constitution Act 1903(Victoria), no.1864ss.4, 10, 20. Google Scholar

99.Benham andRickard, ‘Masters and Servants’, p.6. Google Scholar

100.Eggleston andSugden, George Swinburne, p.101. Google Scholar

101. VPD, vol.101, LA, 12November1902, pp.566-71. Google Scholar

102.Ibid., p.364. Google Scholar

103.Benham andRickard, ‘Masters and Servants’, p.6. Google Scholar

104.Eggleston andSugden, George Swinburne, p.100. Google Scholar

105. VPD, vol.101, LA, 12November1902, p.570. Google Scholar

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108.J. Rickard, ‘The quiet little man in a brown suit: George Turner and the politics of consensus’, inP. Strangio andB. Costar(eds), The Victorian Premiers, p.121;Benham andRickard, ‘Masters and servants’, pp.1-23. Google Scholar

109. VPD, vol.104, LA, 13May1903, p.56. Google Scholar

110.For a detailed analysis of the railway strike, seeBenham andRickard, ‘Masters and servants’. Google Scholar

111.SeeBennett andSmith, ‘Irvine, Sir William Hill’, pp.439-41;VPD, vol.113, 24July1906, pp.449-87. Google Scholar

112.Wright, A People’s Counsel, p.119;Roll of Public Officers[Entitled to Vote in the Election of Members of the Legislative Assembly, under the Constitution Act, 1903, no.1864, Section 25], 1904. Google Scholar

113. Public Service Journal of Victoria(PSJV), January-February1913, vol.1, no.1, p.1. Google Scholar

114.Ibid. Google Scholar

115. PSJV, vol.3, no.8, 30October1915, p.113. Google Scholar

116. PSJV, vol.3, no.6, 31August1915, p.84. Google Scholar

117. VPD, vol.145, LA, 19December1916, p.3535. Google Scholar

118. Constitution Act Amendment Act 1916(Victoria). Google Scholar

119.Changes to the political rights of public servants since 1916 have primarily concerned the position of public servants wishing to enter parliament. In 1935 members of the public and railway services became eligible to stand for State Parliament, meaning they no longer had to resign their positions in order to run. In 1956 public servants elected to State Parliament gained the right to reinstatement if they ceased to qualify for a parliamentary pension. In 1977 the right to stand for election to State Parliament was expanded to any person ‘being the holder of any office or place of profit under the Crown or in any manner employed in the public service of Victoria.’ SeeConstitution Act 1975(Victoria), no.9077, ss.3. Google Scholar

120. PSJV, vol.5, no.3, 31March1917, p.36. Google Scholar

121. VPD, vol.144, LA, 1November1916, p.2149. Google Scholar

122.Ibid., p.2149. Google Scholar

123.Ibid., pp.2147-48. Google Scholar

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