Leslie Henry Hollins (12 September 1897 – 4 September 1984) was an Australian politician. Born at

Wonthaggi Wonthaggi is a seaside town located south east of Melbourne via the South Gippsland and Bass Highways, in the Bass Coast Shire of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Known originally for its coal mining, it is now the largest town in South Gippsl ...

to farmer Henry Hollins and Lilian Mary Theresa Gardner, he attended local state schools before becoming an automotive engineer. He worked with the Melbourne General Omnibus Company in 1915 before serving in the Australian Imperial Force from 1916 to 1919. After the war he worked in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

for a motor engineering firm before returning to

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 ...

, establishing his own business, Hollins Motors, in 1921. On 26 December 1922 he married Rita Annie Payne, daughter of Senator

Herbert Payne Herbert James Mockford Payne (17 August 186626 February 1944) was an Australian politician. He served as a Senator for Tasmania from 1920 to 1938 and as a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1903 to 1920. Payne was born in Hobart and ...

, with whom he had three children. A

social credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

campaigner, he was elected to 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 presiding ...

in 1940 as the

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 ...

member for

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

. He was appointed Minister of Public Instruction and Labour in October 1945, but he was defeated at the election in November. Hollins died in 1984 at

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

References

1897 births 1984 deaths Independent members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Australian Army soldiers Politicians from Melbourne Australian military personnel of World War I 20th-century Australian politicians People from Wonthaggi Ministers for Labour (Victoria) {{Australia-Independent-politician-stub