Arthur Tonge (18 December 1887 – 1 June 1963) was an Australian politician and a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

between 1926 and 1932 and from 1935 to 1962. He was variously a member of the Labor Party (ALP), the

Australian Labor Party (NSW) Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939. Following the expulsion of the N ...

and the

Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist) The Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist), which operated from 1940 to 1941, was a breakaway from the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and was associated with the Lang Labor faction and former New South Wales premier Jack Lang. History Lang los ...

Personal life

Tonge was born in

Glebe, New South Wales Glebe is an inner-western suburb of Sydney. Glebe is located southwest of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney, in the Inner West region. Glebe is surrounded by Blackwattle Bay ...

, the son of a broker, and was educated to intermediate level. He worked as a newspaper clerk and became the secretary of the

Federated Clerks' Union The Federated Clerks Union of Australia (FCU) was an Australian trade union representing clerical workers, in existence from 1911 to 1993, when it amalgamated with the Australian Services Union. History Between 1900 and 1907, attempts were made to ...

. He was involved in community groups including the

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity operating in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. The RSPCA is funded primarily by voluntary donations. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest and largest an ...

Election to parliament

Tonge entered the New South Wales Parliament in highly controversial circumstances in 1926. After two unsuccessful attempts, Tonge contested the

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Italia ...

state election as the second candidate on the Labor list for the 5 member seat of North Shore. Cecil Murphy, Labor's first candidate was elected but Tonge failed to take a seat. The result of the election, which was the last election held in New South Wales using multi-member seats and proportional representation, gave a majority of 1 to the Labor Party under premier Jack Lang. However, the Labor government could also generally count on the support of

Walter Skelton Walter Peden Joyce Skelton MBE (28 March 1883 – 21 May 1979) was an Australian politician, elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. Skelton was born in Boggabri, New South Wales, ninth child of a railway fettler, edu ...

of the

Protestant Labor Party The Protestant Labour Party, alternatively spelt Protestant Labor, was a minor Australian political party that operated mainly in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia in the 1920s and 1930s. It was formed by Walter Skelton in July ...

and

Alick Kay Alick Dudley Kay (3 October 1884 – 4 February 1961) was an Australian politician and Domain orator. He is described by the Australian Dictionary of Biography as a "harmless ratbag". Early life and education Kay was born in the Sydney su ...

, the independent member for North Shore. Kay's political ideology was somewhat obscure and he has been described by the Australian Dictionary of Biography as a "harmless ratbag". To avoid by-elections under the proportional representation voting system, the Parliamentary Casual Vacancies Act ensured that retiring members were replaced by the first unsuccessful candidate from their party list in their electorate. In an attempt to make his majority more secure, Lang offered Kay the position as the consumer representative on the Metropolitan Meat Board. Kay accepted and, as this was a paid government position, he was required to resign from parliament. The method for replacing an independent member, under the act, was not completely clear but the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly ruled that as Kay had supported the government in questions of confidence and supply he could be replaced in parliament by the defeated Labor candidate for North Shore, Arthur Tonge. The reverberations from this piece of sharp political practice continued to disrupt the state Labor party for the next 15 years (see

Lang Labor Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939. Following the expulsion of the N ...

State Parliament

With the end of proportional representation at the 1927 state election, Tonge successfully transferred to the relatively safe Labor seat of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

, which was physically and demographically far removed from the North Shore. He lost the seat to the

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...

candidate, Edward Hocking by 111 votes at the

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

landslide that swept Jack Lang and Labor from power. However he regained the seat at the next election in

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...

. Tonge was a member of Lang's Australian Labor Party (NSW) when that party was estranged from the Federal Executive of the ALP between 1931 and 1936 and was also a member of Lang's short lived breakaway

in 1940. He retained the seat of Canterbury until he lost ALP endorsement for the

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

election. He then retired from public life. He was secretary of the Labor Party caucus between 1959 and 1962 but did not hold a ministerial or parliamentary position.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonge, Arthur 1887 births 1963 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians