Joseph Cahill
New South Wales Parliament for Cook's River | |
---|---|
In office 10 May 1941 – 22 October 1959 | |
Preceded by | New district |
Succeeded by | Tom Cahill |
Personal details | |
Born | Redfern, Colony of New South Wales | 21 January 1891
Died | 22 October 1959 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | (aged 68)
Resting place | Rookwood Cemetery |
Political party | New South Wales Labor Party |
Spouse(s) | Esmey Mary Kelly (b.1891–m.1922–d.1971) |
Children | Thomas James Cahill (1924–1983) John Joseph Cahill (1926–2006) Brian Francis Cahill (1930–2013) Mary (Gemma) Cahill Margaret Cahill[1] |
John Joseph Cahill (21 January 1891 – 22 October 1959), also known as Joe Cahill or J. J. Cahill, was a long-serving New South Wales politician, railway worker, trade unionist and
After many years of backbench service, including a term outside of parliament, Cahill was eventually appointed Secretary for Public Works in 1941 and Minister for Local Government in the government of William McKell in 1944, where he led significant reforms of local government in the state, including establishing a Royal commission in 1945, and passing the landmark Local Government (Areas) Act of 1948. Promoted to Deputy Premier in 1949, Cahill became Premier of New South Wales from April 1952 to his death in October 1959. His term as premier is primarily remembered for his government's role in post-war infrastructure development, which included the commissioning of the Sydney Opera House and construction of the expressway which now bears his name.
Early years and family
Joe Cahill, as he was popularly known, was born on 21 January 1891 in the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern, the son of Irish-born parents, Thomas Cahill, and Ellen Glynn. Cahill's father was born in County Limerick and was a NSW railways labourer at the nearby Eveleigh Railway Workshops, and his mother was the daughter of Irish immigrants from County Clare.[2][3] After being educated at St Brigid's, Marrickville, and Patrician Brothers' School, Redfern, at age 16 he was apprenticed as a fitter for the New South Wales Government Railways at the Eveleigh railway workshops on 2 July 1907.[4]
As a member of the Workers' Educational Association and the Marrickville branch of the
Cahill also made his first attempt to enter politics as a member of the Parliament of New South Wales, when he stood as the Labor candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat of Dulwich Hill at the March 1917 election. Bearing the marks of a young radical, Cahill campaigned on big ideas like the abolition of the Legislative Council and replacing the state Governor with the Lieutenant-Governor, but his comment that "the wealth of the country should be placed in one big pool" attracted amusement in the press.[5][6][7] Cahill was subsequently defeated on a margin of 31-68% against the sitting Nationalist Party member, Tom Hoskins.[8]
On 17 February 1918 his younger brother who also worked in the New South Wales railways,
On 11 November 1922, at St Brigid's Church, Marrickville, he married Esmey Mary Kelly, the daughter of public servant James Joseph Kelly,[14] and they were to have three sons and two daughters. When their first son was born on 12 February 1924, they named him "Thomas James" after Cahill's younger brother.[15] On 11 December 1926, another son was born, who they named John Joseph Cahill.[16] A third son, Brian Francis Cahill, was born on 10 December 1930.[17][18]
In 1922, after taking part in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat the AEU's NSW governing body through a federal council, Cahill among several others was sued by the union for "illegally holding office within the union".[19] Although the suit was later dismissed by the Chief Judge in Equity, Philip Street, Cahill was banned from holding office in the union until 1925.[4][20][21]
Early political career
Eight years after his first tilt at state politics, Cahill was elected as one of the members of the NSW Legislative Assembly seat of St George at the 1925 state election, which brought the Labor party back into government under Jack Lang.[22][23] He was never counted among the close allies of Lang, and remained on the backbench throughout Lang's two terms in government. Cahill, along with half of the parliamentary caucus, supported Peter Loughlin, when the latter challenged Lang for the party leadership in September 1926.[4] With the abolition of the St George constituency in 1930, Cahill ran for Arncliffe and was appointed party whip.[24][12] However, Cahill lost his bid to be re-elected for Arncliffe to United Australia Party's Horace Harper, at the 1932 election, with the electoral tide sweeping out the dismissed Lang Labor government.[25]
This defeat, nevertheless, proved to be only a temporary setback, and Cahill found work as a shop inspector for a shoe retailer in the interim. Retaining his interest in political matters, Cahill (despite his earlier support of Loughlin) stayed loyal to Lang when many in the ALP had deserted the flamboyant ex-Premier. He exclaimed to an Arncliffe Labor meeting: "Mr. Lang is the greatest friend the workers have ever had, and time will prove that Lang is right."[26] In 1935, Cahill was returned to parliament in Arncliffe for the State Labor Party despite the overall defeat at the election, declaring that while "the Press had poisoned the minds of the people, [...] ten years after he was dead the Press would proclaim Mr. Lang as the greatest hero Australia had seen for many a long day."[27][28]
With Lang's leadership in doubt after a further election loss in 1938, Cahill abandoned his former praise of Lang, and he backed a caucus motion to support federal intervention in the state branch's factional infighting which had led to several of his colleagues defecting to the Industrial Labor Party, led by Bob Heffron, the member representing Botany in Sydney's south-east.[29][30][31] Cahill subsequently supported William McKell, when he successfully challenged Lang for the Labor Party leadership in September 1939, and was elected to the party executive.[32]
A frequent speaker in the assembly, Cahill often addressed his fellow parliamentarians on railway-related matters and lobbied the government (unsuccessfully) for an extension of the Cooks River Tram Line to Arncliffe.[33][34][35] Cahill was the Labor Party campaign director for the September 1940 federal election, which resulted in the ALP under John Curtin gaining the popular vote and winning three additional seats from Robert Menzies' United Australia Party Government, which was forced into minority status, and later fell in a confidence vote in October 1941.[36]
Minister of the Crown
The Labor Party swept back into office at the May 1941 election, winning 26 seats over the United Australia Party's (UAP) loss of 33 seats, and McKell was commissioned by the Governor, Lord Wakehurst, to form a government.[37] When Arncliffe was abolished at the 1941 election, Cahill switched to the new electorate of Cook's River.[38] On 16 May 1941, Cahill was sworn in along with the rest of the ministry as Secretary of Public Works by the Governor at Government House.[39][40]
Commencing office during wartime, Cahill's role as Public Works minister was crucial through the direction of various projects to facilitate continued economic growth and in support of the war effort. The government had long supported the re-establishment of a state shipbuilding enterprise following the UAP Government of Bertram Stevens closing the NSW Government Dockyard in Newcastle in 1933, and consequently in 1942 Cahill directed the opening of the NSW Government Engineering and Shipbuilding Undertaking (known as the State Dockyard) in Newcastle, which was enshrined in the passage of the Government Engineering and Shipbuilding Undertaking Act, 1943. On his role, Cahill declared:
"There was a time when the Public Works Department of New South Wales was a great organisation which built ships and bridges, and had large teams of men engaged on public works in all parts of the State. It has been my ambition to build up this department to the pinnacle it occupied in those days; to build ships and do other great engineering works, and to ensure that the whole organisation was keyed up in such a way as to afford a maximum defence effort while still performing urgent civilian public works. [...] This Government was pledged to re-establish shipbuilding as a State enterprise. The Premier entrusted this responsibility to me, and the job has been done. Within a year of taking-office we were able to say that we were building a ship to the order of the Australian Shipbuilding Board. Our engineering and shipbuilding undertaking is destined to become one of the great institutions of the Commonwealth, both in war and peace years, for it has been planned in such a way that its activities can be swung from one engineering project to another easily and smoothly."[41]
Other projects commenced included various war works such as defence installations, air fields, prisoner-of-war camps, alongside important civil improvements to water and electricity infrastructure which were not delayed due to the war.
In 1944 Cahill became
In September 1949, the serving Deputy Premier, Jack Baddeley, announced his retirement from parliament and his appointment as Director of the State Coal Mines Control Board,[46][47] and Cahill stood to succeed him as deputy.[46][48][49] At the caucus meeting on 21 September, Cahill was elected Deputy Premier 21 votes to 20 against Attorney-General Clarence Martin.[50][51]
Premier of New South Wales
When
Cahill won the state elections of
Sydney Opera House
It was in November 1954 that Cahill first began to champion the idea of an opera house in Sydney on the site of the old Fort Macquarie Tram Depot at Bennelong Point. He announced an international competition for its design in September 1955. This competition was subsequently won by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon in January 1957.[57] In August 1957, Cahill responded to criticisms that the opera house was an extravagance and inaccessible to the ordinary public by noting that, "the building when erected will be available for the use of every citizen, that the average working family will be able to afford to go there just as well as people in more favourable economic circumstances, that there will be nothing savouring even remotely of a class conscious barrier and that the Opera House will, in fact, be a monument to democratic nationhood in its fullest sense."[58]
On 5 February 1959, Cahill signed the contract for the first stage of building works for the Opera House with the Chairman of
Sectarian tensions
Cahill's political skills, his determination to avoid another Lang-style split in the party, and his government's, and indeed personal, close alliance with Sydney's Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal
Illness and death in office
A heavy smoker, Cahill suffered increasingly poor health during 1959, with Deputy Premier Bob Heffron often acting in Cahill's place during these times. He died at Sydney Hospital of a myocardial infarction in October of that year and Heffron succeeded him unopposed in the premiership.[61] No premier of New South Wales before him had continuously remained in power as long as Cahill did and no later premier would manage to surpass the length of Cahill's tenure until Robert Askin in 1972.
Honours and legacy
Survived by his wife, Esmey, daughters Gemma and Margaret, and sons Tom, John and Brian, Cahill was granted a
His eldest son, Thomas James Cahill, was elected to his father's vacated seat of Cook's River at the subsequent December by-election and served as an MP until his death in 1983.[15] His second son and namesake, John Joseph Cahill, served as a judge of the Industrial Commission of New South Wales from 1971 to 1998.[64] His wife, Esmey Cahill, died at the age of 79 on 21 June 1971 at the Cahill's long-term home at 44 Warren Road, Marrickville, and was buried beside her husband in the family plot at Rookwood Cemetery.[65]
Over the years Cahill was given several awards. As a Member of Parliament, he received the
Following Cahill's death, the new public high school in Mascot in his former seat of Cook's River also decided to honour his memory, as well as his role in the school's establishment, by naming itself the "J J Cahill Memorial High School", which was officially opened by his widow, Esmey Cahill, on 24 March 1961. On the school's 50th anniversary, the principal Robyn Cowin noted that Cahill "was a man of genuine personal integrity, a family man and a great worker whose deeds spoke for themselves [...] His code of behaviour and indeed the manner of his life embodied the school motto 'Do what is right because it is right'".[74][75]
References
- ^ "MRS. CAHILL WILL HAVE A BUSY WEEK". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 2 February 1954. p. 13. Retrieved 17 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
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- The St George Call. 17 March 1917. p. 6. Retrieved 30 March 2018 – via Trove.
- ^ Green, Antony. "1917 Dulwich Hill". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ "Thomas James Cahill". Discovering ANZACs. National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
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- ^ "DEATH OF SERGEANT-MAJOR THOMAS CAHILL". The Catholic Press. New South Wales, Australia. 8 June 1916. p. 30. Retrieved 17 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b "Mr John Joseph Cahill (1891–1959)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
- ^ "Old Smoothie – John Joseph Cahill". Eveleigh Stories. Australian Technology Park Heritage. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- Catholic Freeman's Journal. New South Wales, Australia. 4 April 1935. p. 38. Retrieved 17 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b "Mr Thomas James Cahill (1924–1983)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^ "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 25 December 1926. p. 8. Retrieved 17 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 20 December 1930. p. 14. Retrieved 17 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Death Notices – CAHILL, Brian Francis. 10.12.1930 – 11.02.2013". The Sydney Morning Herald. 14 February 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
- ^ "The Amalgamated Engineers". The Daily Telegraph. 23 November 1922. p. 8. Retrieved 30 March 2018 – via Trove.
- ^ "In equity". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 November 1922. p. 6. Retrieved 30 March 2018 – via Trove.
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- ^ Green, Antony. "1925 St George". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ Green, Antony. "1930 Arncliffe". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
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- The Labor Daily. 2 August 1932. p. 7. Retrieved 30 March 2018 – via Trove.
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- ^ "McKELL TO FORM MINISTRY". The Daily Telegraph. New South Wales, Australia. 14 May 1941. p. 7. Retrieved 17 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Green, Antony. "1941 Cooks River". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
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- ^ McQuillan, Ern, 1926- (1959), New South Wales Premier Mr Joseph Cahill signs the contract for the building of the Sydney Opera House observed by Mr Jan de Vries and Mr Gerardus Jozef Dusseldorp, 1959 [picture] / Ern McQuillan
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ P. Golding, They called him Old Smoothie: John Joseph Cahill, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 31/2 (2010/11), 75-82.
- ^ a b "High tributes paid to Mr Cahill". The Canberra Times. 23 October 1959. p. 1. Retrieved 30 March 2018 – via Trove.
- ^ "Mr Heffron sworn in as Premier". The Canberra Times. 24 October 1959. p. 1. Retrieved 30 March 2018 – via Trove.
- ^ "Funderal service for Mr Cahill". The Canberra Times. 26 October 1959. p. 1. Retrieved 30 March 2018 – via Trove.
- ^ McGinness, Mark (22 September 2006). "Obituary – Jurist with a steely reputation: John Cahill, 1926-2006". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- ^ "Funerals – Cahill". The Sydney Morning Herald. 26 June 1971. p. 120.
- ^ "CORONATION MEDALS". The Propeller. Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia. 20 May 1937. p. 3. Retrieved 15 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "LIST OF CORONATION MEDAL AWARDS". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 2 June 1953. p. 6. Retrieved 15 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Honorary awards – The Honourable John Joseph Cahill". Archives and Records Management Services. University of Sydney. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- ^ "Honorary Degree and Fellowship holders". UNSW Sydney. University of New South Wales. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
- ^ "Honorary Degree Recipients since 1955 and Emeritus Professor Awardees since 1964". UNE Council. University of New England. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
- ^ "The council of the City of Sydney". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. No. 3. 9 January 1959. p. 99. Retrieved 27 March 2018 – via Trove.
- ^ "K062 : Cahills Lookout". Heritage search. NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
- ^ Beichert, Kahlia (1 December 2015). "Long wait for upgrade: Cahill Park improvements may take 15 years". St George and Sutherland Shire Leader. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
- ^ "Sydney school honours Irish Australian namesake". Irish Echo. 11 April 2011. Archived from the original on 12 April 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- ^ "Our School History". J J Cahill Memorial High School. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
Further reading
- Golding, Peter S (2009), They Called Him old Smoothie: John Joseph Cahill, North Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Scholarly Publishing, ISBN 978-1-921509-53-7
- Clune, David (2006). "16. Cahill, John Joseph". In Clune, David; Turner, Ken (eds.). The Premiers of New South Wales 1856-2005: Volume 2, 1901-2005. Sydney: The Federation Press. pp. 295–314. ISBN 1-86287-551-0.