Frederick Walter Collard (6 June 1912 – 1 December 1986) was an Australian politician and trade unionist. 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) and served in 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 1961 to 1975, representing the Western Australian seat of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

. He was a gold miner and

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoralism, pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 ...

official before entering parliament.

Early life

Collard was born on 6 June 1912 in

Beverley, Western Australia Beverley is a town in the Wheatbelt (Western Australia), Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, south-east of the state capital, Perth, between York, Western Australia, York and Brookton, Western Australia, Brookton on the Great Southern Highway ...

. He was raised in Kokeby, where his father Henry Collard was a farmer, but went into mining after leaving school. Collard enlisted in the

Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...

(RAAF) in August 1942 and was posted to the RAAF School of Technical Training and Engineering in Perth. He transferred to the No. 1 Aircraft Depot RAAF in Victoria in April 1943, where he remained until 1945. He was discharged in February 1946 with the rank of

leading aircraftman Leading aircraftman (LAC) or leading aircraftwoman (LACW) is an enlisted rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Leading air ...

. Collard returned to mining after the war's end, settling in

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

and working at the North Kalgurli Gold Mine. In 1951 he was employed by the

(AWU) as a full-time organiser. He was appointed organising secretary of the AWU's mining division the following year. In 1955 he represented the AWU at the state arbitration court as it sought a new

award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...

for the gold mining industry.

Politics

Collard was elected to the

at the 1961 federal election, winning the seat of

for the Australian Labor Party from the incumbent Liberal MP Peter Browne. Kalgoorlie was the last seat to be called, with Collard's margin of victory being less than 500 votes. In parliament, Collard was a strong advocate for the gold-mining industry. In the early 1970s he lobbied the

Gorton Gorton is an area of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. It is to the southeast of Manchester city centre. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw. A ...

and

McMahon government The McMahon government was the period of federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister William McMahon of the Liberal Party. It was made up of members of a coalition between the Liberal Party and the Country Party, led by ...

s for the subsidy payable to gold miners to be increased, on the grounds that the industry would otherwise die out and lead to large-scale unemployment in his constituency. After the ALP's victory at the 1972 federal election, Collard came into conflict with Prime Minister

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being ...

and federal treasurer Frank Crean on a number of occasions over their attempts to remove the subsidy. In 1973, he successfully within the ALP caucus for the government to reverse its removal of tax exemptions on gold mining profits. Collard served on a number of parliamentary committees, including as a member of the Joint Statutory Committee on Public Accounts from 1967 to 1975 and the House Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs from 1973 to 1975. In 1968, he spoke in parliament on the difficulties

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

faced in obtaining social services and welfare payments, requesting that the Department of Social Services increase its presence in his constituency. Collard was re-elected in Kalgoorlie on five occasions, eventually losing his seat to Liberal candidate Mick Cotter in the ALP's landslide defeat at the 1975 federal election. His defeat was attributed in part to the Whitlam government's resources policy and its perceived failure to support the gold-mining industry.

Personal life

In 1940 Collard married Irene Jackson. He died on 1 December 1986, aged 74.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collard, Fred Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Kalgoorlie Members of the Australian House of Representatives 1912 births 1986 deaths People from Beverley, Western Australia Australian miners Trade unionists from Western Australia Australian MPs 1961–1963 Australian MPs 1963–1966 Australian MPs 1966–1969 Australian MPs 1969–1972 Australian MPs 1972–1974 Australian MPs 1974–1975