Martin Matthew Flannery (13 December 1885 – 7 February 1935) was an Australian politician. He served in 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 ...

from 1920 to 1932, representing the

Electoral district of Murrumbidgee Murrumbidgee is a former electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, named after the Murrumbidgee River. History Until its abolition, Murrumbidgee and Parramatta were the only electorates to have ...

for the Labor Party.

Early life

He was born at

Barmedman Barmedman is a rural village in the Bland Shire in the New South Wales state of Australia, located approximately half-way between West Wyalong and Temora. Barmedman began as a service centre for gold-mining operations in the area. Nowadays the ...

to mine manager Matthew Flannery and Johanna, ''née'' Fitzgerald. He became a compositor with the

Wyalong Wyalong is part of the Bland Shire located in the Northern Riverina Region of New South Wales, Australia. Established as a gold mining town, it is now a quiet town with historic buildings a few kilometres east of West Wyalong, the major distric ...

Star before travelling to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, returning to become a timbercutter for the True Blue Mine in

West Wyalong West Wyalong is the main town of the Bland Shire in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Located west of Sydney and above sea level, it is situated on the crossroads of the Newell Highway between Melbourne and Brisbane, and the ...

and farmer. He was a member of the

Yenda Yenda is a town in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. The town is located about east of Griffith, north-west of Narrandera, and west of Sydney in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area of southern New South Wales. Although most ...

branch of the Labor Party and served on

Bland Shire Council Bland Shire is a local government area in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. it covers an area of . As at the the population was 5,995. It is a member of the League of Extraordinary Communities which was established by Dull, Pert ...

from 1914 to 1917. On 28 February 1922 he married Elizabeth Glennan, with whom he had two children.

Parliamentary career

In 1920 Flannery was elected to the

as 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 ...

member for the multi-member seat of Murrumbidgee, serving alongside

Ernest Buttenshaw Ernest Albert Buttenshaw (23 May 187626 June 1950) was an Australian politician and member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1917 until 1932. He was a member of the Nationalist Party of Australia until 1920, when he helped to esta ...

, of the Country Party, and Nationalist Party members

Arthur Grimm Arthur Hetherington Grimm (27 August 1868 – 20 March 1939) was a politician, farmer and stock and station agent in New South Wales, Australia. He was born at Dalby in Queensland to Presbyterian minister George Grimm, and Mary, Hetherington ...

and

Edmund Best Edmund Carncross Best (26 March 1869 – 22 July 1944) was an Australian politician. He was born at Forbes to bootmaker Christopher Best and Catherine Mary, ''née'' Doran. He received a primary education before working in a store, eventuall ...

. Flannery continued to represent the seat following the change to single member constituencies in 1927 and was described by the

Riverine Grazier ''The Riverine Grazier'' is an English language newspaper published in Hay, New South Wales from 1873. The paper absorbed the ''Riverina Times, Hay Standard and Journal of Water Conservation'' in October 1902. History The first issue of ''The ...

, an anti-Labor newspaper, as "a good local member, with a clean record ... and a formidable antagonist". He was Secretary for Public Works and Minister for Railways in the first Lang Ministry from 1925 to 1927, but was seen as an opponent of the controversial premier and was unsuccessfully opposed by Lang's supporters for Labor preselection in Murrumbidgee. Flannery served in the Assembly until the 1932 state election, when he lost his seat in a statewide swing against Labor. Flannery died at

Woollahra Woollahra is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woollahra is located 5 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra. W ...

in 1935.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flannery, Martin 1885 births 1935 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly New South Wales local councillors Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians