The Continuous Ministry or Continuous Cabinet was an informal designation used to describe the grouping in the

Queensland Parliament The Parliament of Queensland is the legislature of Queensland, Australia. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the Monarch of Australia and the Legislative Assembly. It has been the only unicameral s ...

that existed from 1890 to 1899, and provided six colonial-era

Premiers of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

. The Ministry was formed from a merging of

Samuel Griffith Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, (21 June 1845 – 9 August 1920) was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and t ...

's Liberal faction with

Sir Thomas McIlwraith Sir Thomas McIlwraith (17 May 1835 – 17 July 1900) was for many years the dominant figure of colonial politics in Queensland. He was Premier of Queensland from 1879 to 1883, again in 1888, and for a third time in 1893. In common with most po ...

's Conservatives, forming the humorously-titled Griffilwraith. This grouping encompassed all but a few dissident liberal politicians in the Legislative Assembly and maintained control of the Parliament for two decades by steadily promoting its members into ministerial positions. The Ministerialists, many of whom were businessmen for whom their parliamentary career was not their primary concern, were primarily

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

in character. They supported the development of the colony's

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

beef cattle Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk production). The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef. In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf operat ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

and

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. As ...

industries that were to remain the backbone of Queensland's economy for a century. The Ministerialists fractured in December 1899 and fell to the

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 ...

government of

Anderson Dawson Andrew Dawson (16 July 1863 – 20 July 1910), usually known as Anderson Dawson, was an Australian politician, the Premier of Queensland for one week (1–7 December) in 1899. This short-lived premiership was the first Australian Labor Party go ...

, which, with a six-day period in office, was the first government of its type anywhere in the world. The shocked faction quickly regrouped to defeat Dawson on the floor of Parliament. The Ministry eventually broke apart completely after disgruntled backbenchers became embittered by their exclusion from the inner clique of cabinet ministers.

Digby Denham Digby Frank Denham (25 January 1859 – 10 May 1944) was a politician and businessman in Queensland, Australia. He was a Premier of Queensland and Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. He was the first of only two Queensland Premiers t ...

led a group into the coalition government of

Arthur Morgan Arthur Morgan may refer to: * Arthur Morgan (Australian politician, born 1856) (1856–1916), Premier of Queensland, Australia * Arthur Ernest Morgan (1878–1975), American administrator, educator and engineer * Arthur Morgan (Australian politici ...

, and the Continuous Ministry came to an end.

Premiers during the Continuous Ministry

August 1890 – March 1893 *

March 1893 – October 1893 * Hugh Nelson October 1893 – April 1898 * Thomas Byrnes April 1898 – October 1898 *

James Dickson James or Jim Dickson may refer to: Politicians *James Dickson (Scottish politician) (c. 1715–1771), MP for Lanark Burghs 1768–1771 *James Dickson (New South Wales politician) (1813–1863), member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly *Ja ...

October 1898 – December 1899 *

Robert Philp Sir Robert Philp, (28 December 1851 – 17 June 1922) was a Queensland businessman and politician who was Premier of Queensland from December 1899 to September 1903 and again from November 1907 to February 1908. Early life Philp was born in ...

December 1899 – September 1903

References

*{{cite book, author=Helen Irving, title=The Centenary Companion to Australian Federation, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AbFbCyp0isMC&pg=PA97, date=6 December 1999, publisher=Cambridge University Press, isbn=978-0-521-57314-6, pages=97 Queensland ministries