The Continuous Ministry or Continuous Cabinet was an informal designation used to describe the grouping in the

Queensland Parliament The Parliament of Queensland is the unicameral legislative body of the Australian state of Queensland. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Queensland, and the ...

that existed from 1890 to 1899, and provided six colonial-era

Premiers of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is appointed ...

. The Ministry was formed from a merging of

Samuel Griffith Sir Samuel Walker Griffith (21 June 1845 – 9 August 1920) was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and ...

's Liberal faction with Sir Thomas McIlwraith's Conservatives, forming the humorously-titled Griffilwraith. This grouping encompassed all but a few dissident liberal politicians in the Legislative Assembly and maintained control of the Parliament for two decades by steadily promoting its members into ministerial positions. The Ministerialists, many of whom were businessmen for whom their parliamentary career was not their primary concern, were primarily

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

in character. They supported the development of the colony's

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

beef cattle Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk (production)). The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef. In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf opera ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

industries that were to remain the backbone of Queensland's economy for a century. The Ministerialists fractured in December 1899 and fell to the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

government of

Anderson Dawson Andrew Dawson (16 July 1863 – 20 July 1910), usually known as Anderson Dawson, was an Australian politician and unionist who served as the 14th premier of Queensland for one week from the 1 to the 7 of December 1899. This short-lived premier ...

, which, with a six-day period in office, was the first government of its type anywhere in the world. The shocked faction quickly regrouped to defeat Dawson on the floor of Parliament. The Ministry eventually broke apart completely after disgruntled backbenchers became embittered by their exclusion from the inner clique of cabinet ministers.

Digby Denham Digby Frank Denham (25 January 1859 – 10 May 1944) was a politician and businessman in Queensland, Australia. He was a Premier of Queensland and Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. He was the first of only two Queensland Premiers t ...

led a group into the coalition government of Arthur Morgan, and the Continuous Ministry came to an end.

Premiers during the Continuous Ministry

Sir Samuel Griffith Sir Samuel Walker Griffith (21 June 1845 – 9 August 1920) was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and t ...

August 1890 – March 1893 * Sir Thomas McIlwraith March 1893 – October 1893 * Hugh Nelson October 1893 – April 1898 * Thomas Byrnes April 1898 – October 1898 * James Dickson October 1898 – December 1899 *

Robert Philp Sir Robert Philp, (28 December 1851 – 17 June 1922) was a Queensland businessman and politician who was Premier of Queensland from December 1899 to September 1903 and again from November 1907 to February 1908. Early life Philp was born in G ...

December 1899 – September 1903

References

*{{cite book, author=Helen Irving, title=The Centenary Companion to Australian Federation, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AbFbCyp0isMC&pg=PA97, date=6 December 1999, publisher=Cambridge University Press, isbn=978-0-521-57314-6, pages=97 Queensland ministries