Arthur Gibson Manning (1 January 1872 – 3 April 1947) was an Australian politician who served in 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 ...

from 1922 to 1928, representing the

Division of Macquarie The Division of Macquarie is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for Lachlan Macqua ...

for the Nationalist Party. He was previous 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 ...

from 1917 to 1920.

Early life

Manning was born in

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's la ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, to pastoralists Frederick and Jane Belle Manning. He was educated in public schools in Wagga and Yass before purchasing grazing land in

Narrabri Narrabri ( ) is a locality and seat of Narrabri Shire local government area in the North West Slopes, New South Wales, Australia on the Namoi River, northwest of Sydney. It sits on the junction of the Kamilaroi Highway and the Newell Highw ...

and

West Wyalong West Wyalong is the main town of the Bland Shire in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Located west of Sydney and above sea level, it is situated on the crossroads of the Newell Highway between Melbourne and Brisbane, and th ...

; he married Florence Hogarth in 1899, a union which produced no children. He became a vocal proponent for the rights of farmers, serving as president of the Australian Meat Council and on the boards of the Farmers and Settlers' Association and the Graziers' Association.

Member of parliament

At the 1917 state election, Manning won the seat of Albury for the Nationalist Party. Defeated at the 1920 state election, Manning remained involved in the Nationalist Party and rural affairs and was chosen as the Nationalist candidate for the

at the 1922 federal election. Manning was victorious, narrowly defeating sitting

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 la ...

representative

Samuel Nicholls Samuel Robert Nicholls (15 May 1885 – 26 September 1939) was an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1917 to 1922, representing the electorate of Macquarie. Born in M ...

by less than 100 votes after preferences from an independent were distributed. Manning faced controversy during his first term in federal parliament when it was revealed in 1924 that he and fellow parliamentarian farmer William Killen had signed cheques on behalf of the government to the Australian meat industry (in which they both had interests). This was considered by some to be in breach of section 44(v) of the Australian constitution, whereby members of parliament were banned from deriving a benefit from government actions. Following a lively parliamentary debate, a motion that Manning and Killen were in breach of section 44(v) was defeated. Despite the controversy, Manning retained his seat at the 1925 election, defeating Labor candidate and future prime minister

Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley (; 22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951) was an Australian politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1945, follow ...

. In 1926, Manning was a member of the Australian delegation to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

General Assembly, discussing, amongst other issues, Australia's administration of the former

German New Guinea German New Guinea (german: Deutsch-Neu-Guinea) consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups and was the first part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , ...

. Manning was opposed by Chifley again in 1928, and narrowly lost following a Labor campaign that painted Manning a friend of Asian immigrants. Chifley argued that he would help keep Australia white and while Manning used his campaign speeches to deny that he was in favour of Asian immigration, the electorate was in no mood for someone they considered soft on immigration.

Later life

Out of parliament, Manning remained on the executive of the Nationalist Party and stood as the official Nationalist Party candidate for the suburban Sydney federal

Division of Wentworth The Division of Wentworth is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. History The division was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election. The division is nam ...

at the 1929 election, following the expulsion of the sitting member Walter Marks from the party. Manning lost and returned to his life as a gentleman grazier while remaining involved in farming and political issues, including a stint as a

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 ...

(the successor to the Nationalist Party) councillor from 1933 to 1935. He died in Sydney.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manning, Arthur Gibson Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Macquarie Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia 1872 births 1947 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians People from Wagga Wagga