John Bailey (14 June 1871 – 26 October 1947) was an Australian politician. Born in Manus Creek to farmer Thomas Henry Bailey and Rosanna Rielly Boyd, he left school early to work with his father as a shearer. On 29 November 1891 he married Esther Elphick at

Tumut Tumut () is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the banks of the Tumut River. Tumut sits on the north-west foothills of the Snowy Mountains and is located on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri, Wolgalu ...

, with whom he had four children. He became an organiser with the

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 ...

(AWU) in 1901, becoming federation vice-president and central branch president from 1914 to 1924. In 1918 he was elected to 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 ...

in a by-election for the seat of Monaro, representing the Labor Party; following the introduction of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

in 1920 he was one of the members for

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

. He held the seat at the 1922 election. In 1924 Bailey was expelled from the Labor Party in connection with a ballot box scandal. He saw out the remainder of his term as an

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 ...

and did not contest the 1925 election. He continued to be active in the union movement and was president of the New South Wales branch of the AWU in 1938. Bailey died at

Stanmore Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in London. It is centred northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the highest points of London, at high. The district, which ...

in 1947.

References

1871 births 1947 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian trade unionists {{Australia-Labor-NewSouthWales-MP-stub