Alexander Poynton OBE (8 August 1853 – 9 January 1935) was an Australian politician. He held ministerial office under Prime Minister

Billy Hughes William Morris Hughes (25 September 1862 – 28 October 1952) was an Australian politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Australia, in office from 1915 to 1923. He is best known for leading the country during World War I, but ...

, serving as

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

(1916–1917), Minister for Home and Territories (1920–1921), and

Postmaster-General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a Ministry (government department), ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having ...

(1921–1923). Poynton was a shearer and union leader before entering politics. He served in the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was creat ...

(1893–1901) as a supporter of the

labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

before winning election to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

at the 1901 federal election. Following the

Australian Labor Party split of 1916 The Australian Labor Party split of 1916 occurred following severe disagreement within the Australian Labor Party over the issue of proposed World War I conscription in Australia. Labor Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes had, by 1916, beco ...

he followed Hughes into the Nationalist Party. He lost his seat at the 1922 election.

Early life

Poynton was born on 8 August 1853 in

Castlemaine, Victoria Castlemaine ( , Variation in Australian English, non-locally also ) is a small city in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, in the Goldfields region of Victoria, Goldfields region about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest by road from ...

. He was the son of Rosanna (née McFadden) and Alexander Poynton; his mother was Irish and his father was from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, England. He left school at the age of 14 and subsequently worked as a miner, station-hand, and shearer. He married Harriet Brown in

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

in 1880. Poynton was involved in the

Australian labour movement The Australian labour movement began in the early 19th century and since the late 19th century has included industrial (Australian unions) and political wings (Australian Labor Party). Trade unions in Australia may be organised (i.e., formed) o ...

from its beginnings. He was president of the

Creswick Creswick is a town in west-central Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometres north of Ballarat and 122 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, in the Shire of Hepburn. It is 430 metres above sea level. At the 2016 census, Creswick had a populatio ...

branch of the Amalgamated Miners' Association and in 1886 became the inaugural treasurer of the

Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australasia The Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australasia was an early Australian trade union. It was formed in January 1887 with the amalgamation of the Wagga Shearers Union and Bourke Shearers Union in New South Wales with the Victorian-based Australian S ...

(ASU). The following year he moved to

Port Augusta, South Australia Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a seaport, it is now a road traffic and railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about north of the state ca ...

, to work as an ASU organiser. He was secretary of the local branch.

Colonial politics

With his support in the

, Poynton unsuccessfully stood for the

seat of

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

at the 1890 election, before his election to the adjacent seat of

Flinders Flinders may refer to: Places Antarctica * Flinders Peak, near the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula Australia New South Wales * Flinders County, New South Wales * Shellharbour Junction railway station, Shellharbour * Flinders, New South Wa ...

at the 1893 election, serving as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MP.Items of news, Kalgoorlie Western Argus: Trove 22 April 1896
/ref> As an Independent Labor MP he attended the

United Labor Party The South Australian Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch) and commonly referred to simply as South Australian Labor, is the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, originally formed ...

caucus meetings without being bound by its decisions, but supported it in divisions.Alexander Poynton: ADB
/ref> By 1899, however, disaffection with

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Charles Kingston Charles Cameron Kingston (22 October 1850 – 11 May 1908) was an Australian politician. From 1893 to 1899 he was a radical liberal Premier of South Australia, occupying this office with the support of Labor, which in the House of Assembly wa ...

led him to

cross the floor In parliamentary systems, politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a different political party than which they were initially elected under (as is the case in Canada and the United Kingdom). ...

with four others to defeat his ministry, citing Kingston's overbearing nature and his tardiness in implementing adequate land reforms as motives. His actions earned him a place as Commissioner for Crown Lands in the

Solomon Solomon (; , ),, ; ar, سُلَيْمَان, ', , ; el, Σολομών, ; la, Salomon also called Jedidiah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Modern Hebrew, Modern: , Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yăḏīḏăyāh'', "beloved of Yahweh, Yah"), ...

ministry in 1899, which lasted only eight days. Poynton's decisive role in ousting Kingston lost him many Labor friends. He served in the House of Assembly until 1901.

Federal politics

1901 Events January * January 1 – The Crown colony, British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and Western Australia Federation of Australia, federate as the Australia, ...

Poynton successfully stood for the Australian House of Representatives in the inaugural federal election as a

Free Trade Party The Free Trade Party which was officially known as the Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association, also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states, was an Australian political party, formally organised in 1887 in New South Wales, ...

member for the

Division of South Australia The Division of South Australia was an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division covering South Australia.The Northern Territory was part of South Australia until 1911. Its area was covered by the Divis ...

(which was not divided into electorates). Though labelled a Free Trader, he was actually an Australasian National League (National Defence League) candidate. At the 1903 election, South Australia was split into single-member electorates, and Poynton was elected as the first member for the

Division of Grey The Division of Grey is an Australian electoral division in South Australia. The division was one of the seven established when the former Division of South Australia was redistributed on 2 October 1903 and is named for Sir George Grey, who wa ...

in the vast northern region of South Australia. In May 1904 he became a pledged

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member. During his time in parliament Poynton served variously as a member of the royal commission on stripper harvesters, chairman of committees,

, Minister for Home and Territories and

. Among his political achievements was the establishment of a railway between Port Augusta and Western Australia, for which he lobbied nearly 18 years. During fiery internal party debates on the issue of conscription during World War I, Poynton became a strong conscriptionist. Along with several other pro-conscription Labor members, he left the party in November 1916 in support of Labor leader and Prime Minister

to help found first the

National Labor Party The National Labor Party was formed by Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes in 1916, following the 1916 Labor split on the issue of World War I conscription in Australia. Hughes had taken over as leader of the Australian Labor Party and Pri ...

and later the Nationalist Party. Appointed OBE in 1920 for his work on repatriation issues, Poynton was defeated at the 1922 election.

Death

He died in Toorak Gardens and was buried in

North Road Cemetery North Road Cemetery is located in the Adelaide suburb of Nailsworth, approximately 5 km north of the central business district. It is 7.3 hectares (18 acres) in size and there have been over 26,000 burials since its foundation in 1853. Th ...

. His wife, a son and four daughters survived him.

References

* __
Details of Poynton's OBE
* van den Hoorn, R. (1988)

, ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 11, Melbourne University Press, Carlton.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poynton, Alexander Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Free Trade Party members of the Parliament of Australia Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Officers of the Order of the British Empire Treasurers of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Grey Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Cabinet of Australia 1935 deaths 1853 births National Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Burials at North Road Cemetery 20th-century Australian politicians