Sidney Wainman O'Flaherty (2 July 1886 – 18 November 1967) 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 ...

member of the Australian Senate for

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

from 1944 to 1962. He had previously served as a Labor member of the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was crea ...

from 1918 to 1921. Born in

Silverton, New South Wales Silverton is a small village at the far west of New South Wales, Australia, north-west of Broken Hill. At the , Silverton had a population of 50. The town sprang up after the discovery of rich silver deposits, although it was soon eclipsed by ...

, his family soon moved to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

, where he was raised. He attended the Adelaide School of Mines before becoming an architect and accountant, and later secretary of the

Miscellaneous Workers' Union The Federated Miscellaneous Workers' Union (F.M.W.U.), commonly known as the 'Missos', was an Australian trade union which existed between 1915 and 1992. It represented an extremely diverse and disparate range of occupations, but its core support ...

. In 1918, he 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

Murray Murray may refer to: Businesses * Murray (bicycle company), an American manufacturer of low-cost bicycles * Murrays, an Australian bus company * Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trust * D. & W. Murray Limited, an Australian whole ...

, serving until 1921. In the 1931 Labor split in the wake of the Great Depression, O'Flaherty became associated with the splinter Lang Labor Party, which supported the ideas of

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_ ...

Jack Lang. He unsuccessfully contested the 1931 federal election for Lang Labor, but resigned in April 1932 along with a number of other figures, including sole MP

Martin Collaton Martin Louis Collaton (11 August 1887 – 25 November 1963) was an Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly multi-member seat of Adelaide from 1931 to 1933. Elected for the Lang Labor Party, he defected to t ...

, who were disgruntled with the South Australian party leadership. They formed the

Lang Australian Labor Party Lang may refer to: *Lang (surname), a surname of independent Germanic or Chinese origin Places * Lang Island (Antarctica), East Antarctica * Lang Nunatak, Antarctica * Lang Sound, Antarctica * Lang Park, a stadium in Brisbane, Australia * Lan ...

with O'Flaherty as party president, but the new party merged into the official Labor Party in September. He contested the 1933 state election, standing for the official Labor Party in the seat of Barossa, but was unsuccessful. He was again unsuccessful as the Labor candidate for

Thebarton Thebarton ( ), formerly Theberton, on Kaurna land, is an inner-western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of West Torrens. The suburb is bounded by the River Torrens to the north, Port Road and Bonython Park to the east, Kintore ...

in 1941. In 1943 he became President of the South Australian Labor Party, but later that year he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Labor Senator for South Australia. He held the seat until his retirement in 1961. O'Flaherty died in 1967.

References

Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for South Australia Members of the Australian Senate Members of the South Australian House of Assembly 1886 births 1967 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-senator-stub