Charles Albert Aaron Morgan (27 January 189727 November 1967) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from 1940 to 1946 and from 1949 to 1958, representing the New South Wales seat of

Reid Reid is a surname of Scotland, Scottish origin. It means "red". People with the surname * Alec Cunningham-Reid (1895–1977), British politician * Alan Reid (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Reid (disambiguation), multiple people * Alexan ...

. He was a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP), although after being defeated for

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before the 1958 federal election he unsuccessfully recontested his seat as an independent.

Early life

Morgan was born on 27 January 1897 in Woonona, New South Wales. He grew up on the South Coast and qualified as a solicitor, establishing a practice in

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

and serving as a legal adviser to the Southern Miners' Federation. After seven years in Wollongong he moved to Sydney.

Politics

Morgan first stood for parliament at the 1925 election, running unsuccessfully against incumbent

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

MP and former cabinet minister

Austin Chapman Sir Austin Chapman (10 July 186412 January 1926) was an Australian politician who served in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives from 1901 until his death in 1926. He held ministerial office in the governments of A ...

. Following Chapman's death, he also stood unsuccessfully at the 1926 Eden-Monaro by-election. Morgan was elected to the

at the 1940 federal election, defeating the incumbent

Lang Labor Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939. It controlled the New South Wale ...

MP Joe Gander. He was defeated by Jack Lang at the 1946 election, but reclaimed Reid at the 1949 election after Lang opted to contest a different seat. In December 1957, Morgan was defeated for ALP

Tom Uren Thomas Uren (28 May 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Australian politician and Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1975 to 1977. Uren served as the Division of Reid, Member for Reid in the Australian House of Representatives from ...

, losing by 226 votes to 164. He and his supporters rejected the outcome of the ballot and unsuccessfully sought the intervention of the ALP's disputes committee. On 31 October 1958, Morgan nominated as an independent candidate in Reid at the 1958 federal election, standing in opposition to Uren. He identified in his campaign announcement as a "locally endorsed Australian Labor candidate" and touted his

anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...

, promising to "oppose and resist the influence of those disruptive and extremist elements who have infiltrated into Labor branches". Morgan was defeated by Uren at the election, polling in third place with 21% of the first-preference vote. After the election, eighteen of his supporters were expelled from the ALP for assisting his campaign.

Fitzpatrick-Browne case

In 1955, Morgan complained to the House of Representatives that his integrity and ability to perform his parliamentary duties were inhibited by claims made in the ''Bankstown Observer'', a free newspaper circulated in his electorate. The matter was referred to the

Committee of Privileges A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

, and the proprietor of the newspaper, Raymond Fitzpatrick, and its editor, Frank Browne, were called before the Bar of the House. After hearing statements from both men, the House sentenced them to 90 days jail.

Personal life

Morgan died on 27 November 1967. Morgan's son Kevin Morgan served in 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 1953 to 1956, during his father's term as a federal MP.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Charles Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Reid Members of the Australian House of Representatives 1897 births 1967 deaths Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Australian MPs 1940–1943 Australian MPs 1943–1946 Australian MPs 1949–1951 Australian MPs 1951–1954 Australian MPs 1954–1955 Australian MPs 1955–1958