Thomas Jerome Kingston Bakhap (29 October 1866 – 18 August 1923) was an Australian politician. He was born in Ballarat,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, the adoptive son of a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

immigrant, Bak Hap.National Museum of Australia: Harvest of Endurance Scroll – Thomas Jerome Bakhap
/ref> He received no formal education but became a shopworker, and was later a tin miner at

Lottah Lottah is a rural locality in the local government area (LGA) of Break O'Day in the North-east LGA region of Tasmania, Australia. The locality is about north-west of the town of St Helens. The 2016 census recorded a population of 13 for the s ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. In 1909, he was elected to the

Tasmanian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart. The Assembly has 25 m ...

for Bass. In 1913, he transferred to federal politics, winning a Tasmanian Senate seat as a member of the

Commonwealth Liberal Party The Liberal Party was a parliamentary party in Australian federal politics between 1909 and 1917. The party was founded under Alfred Deakin's leadership as a merger of the Protectionist Party and Anti-Socialist Party, an event known as the Fus ...

. He was Chairman of Committees from July 1920 to June 1923. Bakhap died in August 1923; John Hayes was appointed to replace him. Bakhap was fluent in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

. He advocated for the Chinese community when Chinese Australians encountered problems arising from the application of the

White Australia Policy The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...

. He visited China in 1922The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, James Jupp, Cambridge University Press, 2001 as a representative of the Australian government, and by that time was recognised as the parliament's pre-eminent expert in Chinese and South-East Asian affairs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakhap, Thomas Commonwealth Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Tasmania Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly 1866 births 1923 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians