Maurice O'Sullivan (5 October 1892 – 25 August 1972), an Australian politician, was a member of 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 House ...

from 1927 until 1959. He was variously a member of the

Australian Labor Party (NSW) Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939. It controlled the New South Wale ...

and the Labor Party. He held numerous ministerial positions between 1941 and 1956 including

Minister for Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

and

Minister for Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

Early life

O'Sullivan was born in

Paddington, New South Wales Paddington is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Located east of the Sydney central business district, Paddington lies across two Local government in Australia, local government areas. The portion south of Oxford St ...

and was the son of a publican. He was educated at the Christian Brother's School, Paddington and initially worked as an apprentice coach painter with the

New South Wales Government Railways New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) was an agency of the Government of New South Wales that administered rail transport in the colony, and then the state, of New South Wales, Australia, between 1855 and 1932. History The NSWGR built ...

. He became active in the Federated Coachmakers' Employees Union but took over the licence of his father's hotel, The Lord Dudley, and then continued in a career as a publican. He was active in community organizations in the Paddington area and was elected as an alderman on Paddington Municipal Council between 1923 and 1934. He was the mayor in 1927

State Parliament

O'Sullivan was elected to parliament at the

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the BBC, British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, John Reith becomes the first ...

election for the newly re-established seat of

Woollahra Woollahra ( ) is a suburb in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woollahra is located east of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local go ...

. Due to a redistribution the seat became untenable for Labor at the

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...

election and he transferred to the seat of

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

. The sitting

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

member for Paddington, Daniel Levy, successfully contested Woolahra. O'Sullivan retained Paddington at the next 9 elections and retired from parliament at the

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

election . He was a member of the

while that party was separated from the Federal executive of the Labor Party between 1931 and 1936 and was the party whip from 1932 till 1941. With the election of the Labor government of

William McKell Sir William John McKell, (26 September 1891 – 11 January 1985) was an Australian politician who served as the 12th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1947 to 1953. He had previously been Premier of New South Wales from 1941 to 19 ...

at the

1941 The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...

election, O'Sullivan was appointed Minister for Transport, a position he retained until 1950. He was then commissioned as the Minister for Health and he stayed in this post until 1956. He retired in 1959.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OSullivan, Maurice 1892 births 1972 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians Mayors of Paddington (New South Wales) Ministers for health (New South Wales)