James Leo Geraghty (1896 – 27 June 1960) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

from 1941 until 1953. He was a member of the Labor Party (ALP) until 1950 and then sat as an Independent Labor member.

Early life

He worked as a railway engineer and hotel manager and owned substantial suburban property.

State parliament

Geraghty was elected to the New South Wales Parliament as the Labor member for the seat of

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

at the

1941 The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...

state election. He defeated the sitting

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four Elections in Australia, federal elections in that time, usually governing Coalition (Australia), in coalition ...

member, Hubert Primrose. Geraghty retained the seat for the Labor Party at the next 2 elections.

Expulsion from the Labor Party

In November 1949, Jim Harrison resigned from the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

to successfully contest the federal seat of Blaxland at the

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

election. His successor was due to be elected at a joint sitting of the two houses of parliament on 22 March 1950. While the election was by secret ballot, each Labor member of the parliament had a unique how- to-vote card and Labor scrutineers were able to determine if a member had broken caucus solidarity and voted against the endorsed Labor candidate. On the day of the election, Mr Asher Joel, a wealthy Sydney businessman was a surprise nomination against Labor's Mr James Thom. Joel was unsuccessful but received 23 votes and it became common knowledge within the Labor Party, although never officially stated, that 4 members of the party; Geraghty,

John Seiffert John Wesley Seiffert (9 September 1905 – 10 January 1965) was an Australian politician and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1941 until his death in 1965. He was a member of the Labor Party (ALP), but stood at an Inde ...

( Monaro), Roy Heferen ( Barwon), Fred Stanley ( Lakemba) had voted for him. There were also unproven rumours that they had received cash payments for their votes. The state executive of the Labor Party responded by withholding the endorsement for these candidates at the

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

election. Geraghty and the other disendorsed members received support from the Caucus and a severe rift developed between the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties. This was a major contribution to Labor's poor showing at the election.. Geraghty successfully defended the seat as an Independent Labor candidate against Ray Maher the endorsed Labor candidate and was automatically expelled from the party. He lost the seat to Maher at the

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

election.

References

* 1896 births 1960 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-NewSouthWales-MP-stub