William Peter Barry (30 June 1899 – 21 December 1972) was a Member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presidin ...

for the Electoral district of Carlton from July 1932 until April 1955. Barry was a member of the Labor Party until March 1955, when he was expelled from the party as part of the

Australian Labor Party split of 1955 The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was a split within the Australian Labor Party along ethnocultural lines and about the position towards communism. Key players in the split were the federal opposition leader H. V. "Doc" Evatt and B. A. ...

. He became, with Les Coleman in the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative C ...

, joint leader of the

Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) The Democratic Labour Party (DLP), formerly the Democratic Labor Party, is an Australian political party. It broke off from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as a result of the 1955 ALP split, originally under the name Australian Labor Party ...

, a party that in 1957 became the Democratic Labor Party. Barry was educated at St Brigid's School, North Fitzroy, Victoria and at

St George's School, Carlton St George's School, Carlton was a Catholic Church school located in Carlton, Victoria, Carlton, a suburb of Melbourne and was part of a parish complex which included a church, a hall and a school for boys and one for girls each using the same or ...

. He was a tobacco worker and union official before entering Parliament, and was considered close to

John Wren John Wren (3 April 1871 – 26 October 1953) was an Australian bookmaker, boxing and wrestling promoter, Irish nationalist, land speculator, newspaper owner, racecourse and racehorse owner, soldier, pro-conscriptionist and theatre owner. He ...

, the Victorian entrepreneur.

Political career

The

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

opposed Barry at parliamentary elections in the 1940s with some of its leading members, including

Ralph Gibson Ralph Gibson (born January 16, 1939) is an American art photographer best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through contextualization and su ...

and Dr Gerald O'Dea. Barry was Minister for Transport in the first Cain government in 1943, Minister for Health, for Housing, and for Forests in the second Cain government from 1945 to 1947, and Minister for Health in the third Cain government from 1952 to 1955. He was also a member of the

Melbourne City Council The City of Melbourne is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central city area of Melbourne. In 2018, the city has an area of and had a population of 169,961. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. The c ...

from 1938 to 1955. Barry was expelled from the Labor Party in 1955 and became leader of the Victorian Labor Party (Anti-Communist). He led his group across the floor to support a successful

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or m ...

in John Cain's government. For that perceived act of political treachery, he had

thirty pieces of silver Thirty pieces of silver was the price for which Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, according to an account in the Gospel of Matthew 26:15 in the New Testament. Before the Last Supper, Judas is said to have gone to the chief priests and agreed to hand ...

thrown at his feet. Noel Counihan's 1955 painting ''On Parliament Steps'', now in the Art Gallery of Ballarat, depicts the incident. Barry was defeated at the election of 1955 by the ALP candidate Denis (Dinny) Lovegrove.Ross Fitzgerald (2003), ''The Pope's Battalions. Santamaria, Catholicism and the Labor Split'', University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland, p.148. As a Democratic Labor Party candidate, Barry unsuccessfully contested the seats of

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

at the 1961 state election, and Greensborough at the 1967 state election.

Peter Kavanagh

Barry's grandson, Peter Kavanagh, was elected to the

for

Western Victoria Region Western Victoria Region is one of the eight electoral regions of Victoria, Australia, which elects five members to the Victorian Legislative Council (also referred to as the upper house) by proportional representation. The region was created in ...

at the 2006 state election, representing the Democratic Labor Party, but was defeated at the 2010 state election. Kavanagh was the first DLP candidate to be elected to the Victorian Parliament since 1955, when

Frank Scully Francis Joseph Xavier Scully; (April 28 1892 – June 23 1964) was an American journalist, author, humorist, and a regular columnist for the entertainment trade magazine ''Variety''. Career Scully studied journalism at Columbia University, ...

won the Electoral district of Richmond.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, Bill 1899 births 1972 deaths Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Democratic Labor Party (historical) politicians Politicians from Melbourne Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist) members of the Parliament of Victoria 20th-century Australian politicians People from Northcote, Victoria