Summary heading
The Hon Arthur Blakeley
Career within Commonwealth
Arthur
Blakeley was born on 3 July 1886 at Gilberton, South Australia, son of Simeon
Blakeley, a house painter from Yorkshire, and his wife Catherine Ann, nee Greenwood.
He attended North Broken Hill Convent School, leaving at 13 to work in the
mining camps. He became a shearer in 1900 and apart from brief return to
mining, continued in pastoral occupations. Arthur Blakeley became an organiser
for the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) in 1912 and Secretary of its Western
(Bourke) Branch in 1915-1917. From 1912 he was also a delegate to AWU
conventions and NSW Labor Party conferences. He was a
member of the NSW State party executive in 1915-1917 and General President of
AWU in 1919-1923. Arthur Blakeley married Ruby Pauline McCaroll
in 1914.
In
1917 Arthur Blakeley was elected to the House of Representatives for Darling,
NSW. In February 1920 he became Secretary to the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party in the House of Representatives and remained in
this position until April 1928. From 26 April 1928 to 5 February 1929 Arthur
Blakeley was Deputy Leader of the Federal Labor
Party. He was Secretary of the Caucus between 16 February 1932 and 22 October
1934.
From
March 1923 to October 1925 Arthur Blakeley served as a member on the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works. In the Scullin Government he
was appointed the Minister for Home Affairs on 22 October 1929 and remained in
this position until 6 January 1932. As the Minister for Home Affairs Arthur
Blakeley was responsible for Canberra, and moved there with his family in 1929.
Defeated
in the 1934 election by Joseph Clark, a Lang Labor
candidate, Arthur Blakeley moved to Melbourne and in 1935 was appointed as an
inspector of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, becoming
Senior Industrial Inspector (Senior Commonwealth Arbitration Inspector) in
1940. He stayed in this position until 1947.
In
February 1941 Arthur Blakeley also became a Conciliation Officer. He was
appointed to act as Conciliation Commissioner ‘to hear and determine any
industrial disputes’ under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act
1904-1934 on 13 October - 23 November 1941, 11 December 1941 - 1 February
1942 and 15 July - 15 October 1942. Between 27 April and 11 June 1942 Arthur
Blakeley was seconded to the Allied Works Council as the Chief Industrial
Officer, but resigned from this post after a disagreement with E. G. Theodore,
Director-General of the Allied Works Council, over a Civil Constructional Corps
Determination. On 13 November 1942 he was appointed as Conciliation
Commissioner permanently. He was also the Chairman of the Wheat Harvest
Employment Commission for the time of the Commission’s existence between 23
October 1942 and 26 January 1943. He retired from government service in 1952.
Arthur
Blakeley died at Glen Iris on 27 June 1972 and was accorded a state funeral.
Sources
Norma Marshall,
'Blakeley, Arthur (1886 - 1972)', Australian Dictionary of Biography,
Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 322-323
NAA: A472, W2622A, Blakeley - 1 Appointment as Conciliation
Officer and Conciliation Commissioner - National Security (General) Regulations
- 2 Appointment as Chairman of Wheat Harvesting Commission Northern Territory
disputes
NAA: A463/39, 1972/2942, State Funeral for the Late
Honourable Arthur Blakeley – 30 June, 1972