Joseph Francis Fitzgerald (6 February 1912 – 1 November 1985) was an Australian politician. He was an

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of ...

for the

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

seat of Phillip from 1949 to 1955 and a member of the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. There are a t ...

for

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

from 1961 to 1974. Fitzgerald was born in

and educated at Christian Brothers College, Waverley and Paddington Junior Technical School. He worked at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops and then for the Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board, which stationed him at their Leichhardt depot from 1939 and seconded him to the federal Deputy Director of Manpower from 1942 to 1946. From 1948, he worked in the federal

Department of Labour and National Service The Department of Labour and National Service was an Australian government department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department ...

. He was an active member of the Labor Party for many years, serving as a member of the party's state central executive from 1941 to 1948 and 1956 to 1961, a member of the central organising committee for twelve years, secretary of the Waverley electorate council for 25 years, and a long-serving secretary of the Randwick North branch and president of the Waverley branch. Fitzgerald was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1949 federal election and re-elected in 1952 and 1954. He was referred to as "one of hemost convinced supporters" of left-wing Labor leader H. V. Evatt and staunchly defended him in the tensions leading up to the 1955 Labor split. He vocally opposed an attempted spill against Evatt in late 1954, and became secretary to the Parliamentary Labor Party in 1955. Fitzgerald was defeated in 1955 amidst a bad nationwide Labor loss and an electoral redistribution that significantly cut his margin in Phillip. After his election defeat, Fitzgerald was the assistant private secretary to Evatt from 1956 to 1960, and one of two of Evatt's staff retained by

Arthur Calwell Arthur Augustus Calwell (28 August 1896 – 8 July 1973) was an Australian politician who served as the leader of the Labor Party from 1960 to 1967. He led the party to three federal elections. Calwell grew up in Melbourne and attended St J ...

when he assumed the leadership in 1960, remaining in the role for Calwell until his election to the Senate in 1961. He was the unsuccessful Labor candidate for his old House seat in 1958. In 1961, he was elected to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

after winning top position on the Labor ticket. In 1967, he was relegated to third position on the Labor Senate ticket after what

Kerry Sibraa Kerry Walter Sibraa (born 12 October 1937) is a former Australian Senator who represented the Labor Party for the state of New South Wales. He was educated at North Sydney Boys High School. He served as a Senator for from 13 December 1975 t ...

described as "the most keenly fought preselections in New South Wales Labor Party history", but unexpectedly won re-election anyway. He suffered a serious stroke in 1971 and retired due to ill health in 1974. After his Senate retirement, he served as a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Handicapped from 1974 to 1980. He was made a life member of the Labor Party in 1979. He died in 1985.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Joe Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Phillip Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian Senate for New South Wales Members of the Australian Senate 1912 births 1985 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians