Wilfred Joseph "Bill" Ratcliffe (30 May 1880 – 25 March 1935) was an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party 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 1922 until 1932, representing the districts of

Botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

(1922–1927),

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

(1927–1930) and Barwon (1930–1932). He was Secretary of Public Works and Minister for Railways for four months in 1927, during the last months of the first

Lang Lang may refer to: *Lang (surname), a surname of independent Germanic or Chinese origin Places * Lang Island (Antarctica), East Antarctica * Lang Nunatak, Antarctica * Lang Sound, Antarctica * Lang Park, a stadium in Brisbane, Australia * Lang, ...

government. Ratcliffe was born at Pyrmont, and was a tram driver before entering politics as a local alderman. He was an unsuccessful Labor candidate at the 1920 state election, when he was placed fifth and last on the Labor ticket for multi-member

. He again contested Botany in 1922 and was again placed fifth on the Labor list, but this time, campaigned for voters to ignore the official ticket and give him their first preference. The tactic was successful, and he was elected at the expense of fellow Labor MLA

Simon Hickey Simon Hickey (born 12 January 1994) is a New Zealand rugby union player who plays for Crusaders (rugby union) in the Super Rugby. He has represented Auckland in the National Provincial Championship, playing as a first five-eighth. He is a for ...

; however, it earned him significant enmity within the Labor Party. He was expelled by the Labor executive in April and sat as an Independent Labor member, but was readmitted to the party in July. Ratcliffe was re-elected in 1925 when Labor won a majority under Jack Lang, and was promoted to the ministry in 1927, when Martin Flannery was dropped in a reshuffle. His ministerial career was cut short by Labor's defeat that year; however, he was re-elected as the member for

. The Alexandria seat was abolished in 1930, and Ratcliffe lost the preselection ballot for inner-city Redfern. The executive tried to find him another seat; after rumours he would run for Monaro, he was appointed candidate for the traditionally conservative rural seat of Barwon. He won the seat, but suffered from ill health during his final term, and retired in 1932. He died in 1935, and was buried in the Roman Catholic section of Rookwood Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratcliffe, Bill 1880 births 1935 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians