William Patrick Conelan (23 December 1895 – 28 February 1983) was an Australian politician. He was an

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

from 1939 to 1949, representing the electorate of

Griffith Griffith may refer to: People * Griffith (name) * Griffith (surname) * Griffith (given name) Places Antarctica * Mount Griffith, Ross Dependency * Griffith Peak (Antarctica), Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Glacier, Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Rid ...

. Conelan was born in Wadnaminga, South Australia and received a primary education. He became a tailors cutter, and at 17, he became the youngest journeyman admitted to the Cutters' Union in South Australia. He then to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, where he was assistant secretary of the Tailors Cutters' Union aged 18. He moved to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

in 1923, and was elected as a Brisbane City Council alderman for Kurilpa Ward in 1937. He served on the council's parks committee and remained on council until his election to parliament. He was also a member of the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board, a long-serving delegate to the Australian Football Council, a member of the Council of the Workers Educational Association and a trustee of Perry Park. At the 1939 by-election, Conelan was elected to the

as the Labor member for

. He won by only eight votes, the closest result in the House of Representatives that has ever been allowed to stand. He was the government whip in the Curtin minority government from 1941 to 1943. He held the seat until his defeat in 1949. Upon his defeat, Conelan became the first Queensland MP to qualify to the parliamentary pension scheme of £2000 or £8 per week. He listed his occupation as "business representative" in 1951. He was an unsuccessful Labor candidate for the Senate at the 1953 half-Senate election. He remained involved in Labor politics, serving as president of the party's Kurilpa branch and vice-president of its Griffith Federal Divisional Executive. He left the party in the 1957 Queensland Labor split and was a member of the campaign committee for the new Queensland Labor Party. Conelan died in 1983.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conelan, William Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Griffith Members of the Australian House of Representatives 1895 births 1983 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians