Gordon Scholes
Minister for Territories | |
---|---|
In office 13 December 1984 – 24 July 1987 | |
Prime Minister | Bob Hawke |
Preceded by | Tom Uren |
Succeeded by | John Brown |
Minister for Defence | |
In office 11 March 1983 – 13 December 1984 | |
Prime Minister | Bob Hawke |
Preceded by | Ian Sinclair |
Succeeded by | Kim Beazley |
Manager of Opposition Business | |
In office 16 February 1976 – 29 December 1977 | |
Leader | Gough Whitlam (1976-77) Bill Hayden (1977) |
Preceded by | Ian Sinclair |
Succeeded by | Mick Young |
Speaker of the House of Representatives | |
In office 27 February 1975 – 11 November 1975 | |
Preceded by | Jim Cope |
Succeeded by | Sir Billy Snedden |
Member of the Australian Parliament for Corio | |
In office 22 July 1967 – 8 February 1993 | |
Preceded by | Hubert Opperman |
Succeeded by | Gavan O'Connor |
Personal details | |
Born | Gordon Glen Denton Scholes 7 June 1931 Victoria, Australia |
Died | 9 December 2018 Geelong, Victoria, Australia | (aged 87)
Political party | Labor |
Spouse | Della K. Robinson |
Gordon Glen Denton Scholes
Early life
Scholes was born on 7 June 1931 in West Melbourne, Victoria. He was the only child of Mary Louisa (née O'Brien) and Thomas Glen Denton Scholes; his father was a railway worker and his mother was a psychiatric nurse.[1]
Scholes had a turbulent childhood. He spent two long periods in hospital, once at the age of three following a car accident and again at the age of fourteen following a bout of
After leaving school, Scholes worked at the Daylesford Woollen Mills while training as a
Politics
Scholes joined the ALP in 1954 and was elected president of its Geelong branch in 1962. He served as Bob Hawke's campaign manager in the seat of Corio at the 1963 federal election. In 1965, he was elected to the Geelong City Council and as president of the Geelong Trades Hall.[1]
Scholes was the Labor Party candidate in Corio in the 1966 election, and was defeated by incumbent Liberal Sir Hubert Opperman. However, Opperman resigned a few months after the election to become Australia's first High Commissioner to Malta. Scholes won the seat at the ensuing by-election on a swing of 11 percent. He won the seat in his own right at the 1969 election.
Speaker of the House
Scholes served as Speaker from 27 February 1975 until 16 February 1976, a period taken up almost entirely by the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. On 11 November 1975, following the dismissal of the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, and the appointment by Kerr of the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser, as caretaker Prime Minister, the House of Representatives passed a motion of no confidence in the Fraser government, by 10 votes. The no confidence motion also called on the Governor-General to reinstate the Whitlam government. As Speaker, Scholes was charged with conveying that resolution of the House to the Governor-General and to request Kerr to dismiss Fraser and re-appoint Whitlam. Kerr refused to see the Speaker or to recognise the motion of no confidence in the Fraser government by the House of Representatives, keeping Scholes waiting for more than an hour.[2] By the time the Governor-General agreed to see Scholes, Kerr had already dissolved the Parliament on Fraser's advice, which was something Fraser had undertaken to do once he had secured passage of the Supply bills through the Senate. Scholes later accused Kerr of bad faith for making an appointment to receive the Speaker shortly after 3pm, and then not waiting to hear from him before dissolving Parliament more than an hour later, with the appointed Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser still as Prime Minister, without the confidence of the House of Representatives.
Government minister
Scholes was
Personal life and death
He was an honorary member of the Geelong Philatelic Society .[3]
Gordon Scholes died on 9 December 2018, aged 87. A State Funeral was held on 18 December.[4]
Notes
- ^ a b c d Hocking, Jenny (2021). "Scholes, Gordon Glen (1931–2018)". Biographical Dictionary of the House of Representatives.
- ^ Jenny Hocking The Dismissal Dossier: Everything You Were Never Meant to Know About November 1975 MUP 2017
- ^ "Biography for Scholes, the Hon. Gordon Glen Denton, AO". ParlInfo Web. Parliament of Australia. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ^ Tucker's Funerals. Retrieved 14 December 2018