The Honourable Frederick Michael Daly was born on 13 June 1913 at Currabubula, New South Wales. He was Educated at Currabubula Public School and Christian Brothers' College Waverley, Sydney. He left school at 14 to become a messenger boy in a motor firm. By the early 1930's he was working as a clerk in a bicycle firm and attending night school at Marist Brothers, Church Hill; he was a member of the Mary Immaculate Debating Society and the Federated Clerks Union and had joined the Australian Labour Party. 

In 1942, when working in the accountancy branch of the Department of the Navy, he decided to stand at the next election. In 1943 he was elected to the House of Representatives as the ALP member for Martin, NSW, defeating the sitting United Australia Party candidate, Bill McCall. Following the 1948 redistribution of electorates he was elected as the member for Grayndler in 1949. He held this seat until he resigned from Parliament on 11 November 1975. During his lengthy career Fred Daly served on various parliamentary committees and represented Australia at several international conferences.
 
From 1943 to 1946 he was a member of the Joint Committee on Social Security and in the post-war years, 1946 to 1950, he was a member of the Rationing Commission. In 1947 he travelled to Europe and the US to investigate immigration, housing and industrial problems. In April-May of that year he also attended an International Labour Organisation Conference at Geneva, Switzerland, as the Leader of the Australian delegation. He was a member of the Australian delegation to the 50th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union at Brussels in 1961. He also attended Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conferences held at Nassau, the Bahamas in 1968; Blantyre, Malawi in 1972; London, UK in 1973; and Sri Lanka in 1974. In 1973 and 1974 he was the leader of the Australian delegations.
 
From 1967 to 1972, Daly was a member of the Joint Committee on the ACT, acting as Deputy Chairman from 1970 to 1972. He served on the Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council from 1970 to 1973.
 
During his Federal Parliamentary career, Fred Daly was Opposition Party Whip (1950-1956), a member of the Opposition Executive
(1963-1972) and Leader of the House of Representatives (1972-1975). In 1972 he was appointed Minister for Services and Property, a portfolio which was changed to Administrative Services in October 1975. He resigned from Parliament on 11 November 1975 when the Whitlam government was dismissed. On 3 June 1978 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia and since 1979 he has been a member of the National Australia Day Committee (named National Australia Day Council since 1985).
 
Fred Daly married Teresa Armstrong on 4 October 1937 and has a daughter, Margaret, and a son, Lawrence. His wife died on 11 October 1975.
 
His published works include:
 
. From Curtin to Kerr
. A to Z of Politics
. The Politician Who Laughed
. From Curtin to Hawke
 
SOURCES:
 
1. WHO'S WHO IN AUSTRALIA. 1985
 
2. COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY HANDBOOK. 10th ed. 1938-45; 11th ed. 1945-53; 12th ed. 1951-56; 16th ed. 1965-68; 19th ed. 1975; 19th ed. Supplement No. 1 1976.
 
3. THE BULLETIN, 6 December 1975, pp.22-24
 
4. THE AUSTRALIAN, 19 September 1977, p.7
 
5. THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 11 September 1979
 
6. COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT DIRECTORY. 1985
 
7. Joan Rydon. A BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER OF THE COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENT 1901-1972. pp.56-57
 
8. Fred Daly. FROM CURTIN TO KERR. Sun Books: Melbourne, 1977