Robert Herbert "Bert" Lacey (12 January 1900 – 2 November 1984) was an Australian politician.

Life and career

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Lacey was educated at state schools and then at Wendouree Agricultural College 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 ...

. He became a construction worker, bush worker and miner, and served in the military in 1918. Having moved to

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, he was an organiser of the state's

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exerci ...

1938–1946 and Secretary of the Tasmanian Labor Party 1947–1965. In January 1959, he was elected in a countback as Labor member for Denison in the

Tasmanian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart. The Assembly has 25 m ...

, replacing Alfred White who had been appointed Agent-General in London. The parliament was prorogued before Lacey took his seat in the chamber, and he was defeated at the state election in May that year. In 1964, Lacey was elected to the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...

as a Labor Senator for Tasmania. He held the seat until his defeat in 1970, effectively by

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 ...

Michael Townley Michael Vernon Townley (born December 5, 1942, in Waterloo, Iowa) is an American-born former agent of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the secret police of Chile during the regime of Augusto Pinochet. In 1978, Townley pled guilty t ...

. Lacey died in 1984.

References

Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Tasmania Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly 1900 births 1984 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-senator-stub