Hartley Gordon James "Harry" Cant (19 November 1907 – 3 March 1977) was an Australian politician. Born at

Mount Magnet Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, he was educated at state schools and then the Kalgoorlie School of Mines, becoming a miner. He was an official with the

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 ...

. In 1958, he was elected to the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chap ...

as a

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 ...

Senator for Western Australia. He held the seat until 1974, when he retired. Cant died in 1977.

Early life

Cant was born on 19 November 1907 in

Mount Magnet, Western Australia Mount Magnet is a town in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It is one of the region's original gold mining towns, and the longest surviving gold mining settlement in the state. The prominent hill that is adjacent to the current townsit ...

. He was one of nine surviving children born to Bridget (née Bone) and Arthur Edward Cant; his father was a labourer. Cant's family moved to

Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri language, Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu language, Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West region of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. As of the , Geraldt ...

in 1914. He was educated at state schools and later attended the Kalgoorlie School of Mines. He was a member of the

(AWU) from 1922, when he was recorded working as a labourer at

Day Dawn Day Dawn is a ghost town in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West/upper Murchison River (Western Australia), Murchison region of Western Australia. It was a significant mining town and mine in the late nineteenth century. Located a short ...

. He later worked as a shed hand at Meekatharra before returning to Geraldton for several years. In 1931, Cant was among four members of a football team convicted of "unlawful possession of four turkeys reasonably suspected of having been stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained" from a pub in Nabawa. In 1938 he was working at the remote mining town of Wiluna, and in the 1940s he worked on the gold mines in

Kalgoorlie-Boulder 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 ...

Labour movement

In 1949, Cant was elected chairman of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder section of the AWU. In the same year he moved to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

after being appointed as a paid organiser for the union. He was nominated to the position by AWU mining state secretary Charlie Oliver and the following year was appointed as an industrial officer, making appearances before the Court of Arbitration of Western Australia. He represented "construction and maintenance workers, wheat handlers, and dredge, lead mine, oil refinery and port construction workers". Cant led a 1955 campaign by the AWU which secured access for union safety officials on mine sites. He was nominated by the AWU's executive to a committee reviewed proposed changes to

workers' compensation Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her emp ...

legislation in 1956. He also served on the Library Board of Western Australia from 1957 to 1958 and as an executive officer on the West Australian Trade Union Industrial Council in 1958.

Politics

Cant joined the Australian Labor Party in 1928 and served on the party's state executive for over 20 years. 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 ...

at the 1958 federal election, winning a six-year term beginning on 1 July 1959. He was re-elected at the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

and 1970 elections, retiring prior to the

1974 election The following elections occurred in the year 1974. Africa * 1974 Botswana general election * 1974 Guinean general election * 1974 Kenyan general election * 1974 Rhodesian general election * 1974 Seychellois parliamentary election * 1974 South Af ...

following a

double dissolution A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissolutio ...

. Cant's

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

in the Senate was notable for its comparisons of the Menzies government to Hitler, Mussolini and Tsarist Russia. In 1962, he criticised the establishment of U.S. military bases in Western Australia, stating they amounted to an annexation. In the same year, he was one of five ALP officials who unsuccessfully sued Liberal Party state secretary Vivian Ockerby for defamation, alongside Joe Chamberlain, Keith Dowding, Arthur Fox, and Laurie Wilkinson. In 1966, Cant reportedly had to be physically restrained by his ALP colleague

Pat Kennelly Patrick John Kennelly (3 June 1900 – 12 December 1981) was an Australian politician. Born in Melbourne, he was educated at Catholic schools before becoming a clerk in the Australian Labor Party (ALP) office in Melbourne. He was an organiser ...

after threatening to assault Liberal senator

Reg Wright Sir Reginald Charles Wright (10 July 1905 – 10 March 1990) was an Australian barrister and politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party and served as a Senator for Tasmania from 1950 to 1978. He held ministerial office in the Gorton and ...

in the Senate chamber. Cant played a significant role in the VIP affair of 1967 which proved politically damaging for the Holt government. In October 1967 he introduced an amendment to a Senate resolution which called on the government to table all data on the use of VIP aircraft, which was passed by ten votes and for the

Coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

represented the "most substantial defeat in the Senate since taking office in 1949". Following the release of flight manifests, he accused Prime Minister

Harold Holt Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until Disappearance of Harold Holt, his disappearance and presumed death in 1967. He held o ...

of having misled parliament and having misused VIP flights for family members.

Personal life

In 1931, Cant married Thelma Christensen, with whom he had three children. In 1942 she successfully petitioned for divorce on the grounds of abandonment, stating they had been estranged since 1938. Cant remarried in 1945 to Florence "Bebe" Newton and had two stepchildren from his second marriage. After moving to Perth they initially lived in Rivervale and later settled in Subiaco. He died at

Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH) is a teaching hospital in Nedlands, Western Australia. Opened in 1958 as the Perth Chest Hospital and later named in honour of Sir Charles Gairdner, governor of Western Australia from 1951 to 1963, it is p ...

on 3 March 1977, having been widowed a short time before.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cant, Harry Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Western Australia Members of the Australian Senate 1907 births 1977 deaths People from Mount Magnet, Western Australia 20th-century Australian politicians