Clive Shields (28 April 1879 – 4 September 1956) was an Australian politician. He was 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 ...
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 ...
from 1932 to 1940, representing the electorate of
Castlemaine and Kyneton. He was Assistant Minister in Charge of Sustenance from 1933 to 1935 and briefly Minister for Agriculture in 1935 under Sir
Stanley Argyle.
Early career
Shields was born in
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
, and attended a local state school and the
University High School.
He entered
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in 1901, while studying medicine at the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...
. He excelled academically, served as president of the Dialectic Club, before graduating in 1906.
Shields worked as a resident surgeon at the Melbourne, Children's and Infectious Diseases Hospital before moving to Western Australia in November 1907 to take up the position of hospital superintendent at
Broad Arrow
A broad arrow, of which a pheon is a variant, is a stylised representation of a metal arrowhead, comprising a tang and two barbs meeting at a point. It is a symbol used traditionally in heraldry, most notably in England, and later by the Britis ...
. He was practising at
Davyhurst in 1908; later positions in Western Australia included service as a medical officer at
Meekatharra (1910–1914) and
Cue (1916–1918). He announced his resignation from his position at Cue in November 1917, intending to enlist in the Army Medical Corps in World War I; a replacement was appointed in January 1918, and newspaper reports in February and April stated that he was travelling prior to enlisting, but there are no reports of him serving in World War I.
Shields moved back to Victoria permanently in 1919, and settled at
Malmsbury
Malmsbury is a town in central Victoria, Australia on the Old Calder Highway (C794), 95 km north-west of the state capital, Melbourne and 11 km north-west of Kyneton. Situated close by the Coliban River, Malmsbury has a population ...
. He retired from medical practice in 1928. He was active in the local Church of England, and was secretary of the Malmsbury sustenance committee from 1930 to 1932.
He was endorsed as 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 for
Castlemaine and Kyneton at the
1932 state election, defeating two other candidates for preselection, and went on to win the election, defeating incumbent Labor MP
Jessie Satchell
Jessie Edward Satchell (7 January 1875 – 8 April 1955) was an Australian politician.
He was born in Myamyn, Victoria to farmer Jesse Satchell and Helen Brown. He attended state schools and became a farm worker, joining Victorian Railways a ...
by more than 400 votes.
He had been strongly supported by
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
newspaper ''
The Argus''.
Minister
Shields was promoted to the ministry in November 1933, filling the vacancy caused by the departure of
Thomas Chester Manifold. He was initially made an honorary minister, but was shortly after appointed Assistant Minister in Charge of Sustenance. This saw Shields become responsible for overseeing the system of
sustenance relief for those affected by the
Great Depression By April 1934, he was supervising 17,000 men engaging in work for sustenance, with an intent to obtain work for another 5,000. The system had different rates, with a higher rate for those capable of working and a lower "benevolent rate" for those who were not. He was responsible for cutting sustenance payments to unemployed city residents who refused to work for sustenance harvesting in the country.
He was promoted to Minister for Agriculture in 1935, in a reshuffle that followed the decision of the
Country Party to break coalition with the UAP. However, thirteen days later, the Argyle government was defeated as a result of the coalition split, and Country Party leader
Albert Dunstan
Sir Albert Arthur Dunstan, KCMG (26 July 1882 – 14 April 1950) was an Australian politician. A member of the Country Party (now National Party), Dunstan was the 33rd premier of Victoria. His term as premier was the second-longest in th ...
formed a minority government with the support of Labor, isolating the UAP in opposition.
His successor as minister,
Ned Hogan, stated that he regretted the "innocent means" of Shields' departure, and joked that he was "sure it would be better for Dr. Shields that it should be so because the department was a place full of difficulties".
Final years in parliament and retirement
In July 1936, Shields was one of eight country MPs who formed the "Country and Liberal wing" and moved to the corner benches of parliament, distancing themselves from the UAP leadership while not leaving the party entirely. They cited dissatisfaction with the leadership of Argyle, and a need to liberalise party policy and be more sympathetic to country interests. Shields became the "duty chairman" of the group.
Shields personally described the group as "the first step towards a rapprochement between the Country Party and the UAP", and distanced them from the "ultra-conservative views" of some members of the UAP. By 1937, he declared that the move had failed and there was no further use for the section.
Shields was re-elected at the
1937 state election, retaining the seat against a challenge from former member Satchell.
In 1937, he made a public plea for an increase in funding for the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...
. Following the failure of the separate Country and Liberal section, two of its members resigned from the party to sit as independents in October 1937; however, Shields elected to remain with the UAP.
Shields announced in August 1938 that he would retire at the
1940 state election, declaring that parliamentary life did not suit his health. Several days later, Shields publicly attacked his own constituents in the media, declaring that most electors "did not care who represented them as long as the member would do something for them personally", that it did not matter what his views were or how he voted, that he was "sick of all this eternal begging – begging for someone else" and "fed up with oiling the parish pump" and expressing his irritation that he was expected to "open every bazaar" and "subscribe to every sporting organisation". The seat was won by Labor candidate
Bill Hodson upon his retirement.
Shields was married twice, to Catherine Williams on 1 June 1908, and on 16 April 1940 to Dorothy Margaret Hart.
Shields died suddenly at
Kew
Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
in September 1956, and was cremated at
Springvale Crematorium.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shields, Clive
1879 births
1956 deaths
United Australia Party members of the Parliament of Victoria
Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Vice-Presidents of the Board of Land and Works
Australian medical doctors
People from Hamilton, Victoria
University of Melbourne alumni
People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne)
Australian hospital administrators
People educated at University High School, Melbourne
Ministers for Agriculture (Victoria)