James Christian "Jens" Petersen (11 December 1880 – 30 April 1953) was a builder and member of the

Queensland Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly h ...

Biography

Petersen was born in

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, to parents Neils Petersen and his wife Maria Elizabeth (née Thorsen). He attended school in Rockhampton and became a builder, working in Rockhampton, Mount Morgan, and

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. He was secretary of the Rockhampton Workers Political Organisation in 1898. In 1905 he married Cordelia May Dawbarn in Sydney and together had two daughters.Family History Search
— New South Wales Government births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Retrieved 29 March 2016.Family history research
— Queensland Government births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Retrieved 29 March 2016. He died in Sydney in April 1953 and was buried in Frenchs Forest Cemetery.

Political career

Petersen, at first representing the Labor Party, won the Queensland seat of Normanby at the state election of

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 * ...

, defeating the Liberal's Edward Archer. He held the seat until

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

when he changed to Fitzroy and then retired from politics three years later. He resigned from the Labor Party while still an elected member for the seat of Normanby and joined the Country Party because he was disillusioned with Labor's socialist policies. In his resignation speech he blamed the government for maladministration, the crippling of industry, the restriction of development and the creation of financial stringency and unemployment because of legislative measures. Petersen's defection came at a crucial time for the Government as at the time there was a serious outbreak of influenza leaving the Government with a one-seat majority. Subsequently, Premier Theodore ordered two of the ALP's strongest members to bring a very sick Labor member into the chamber on a stretcher and transport him across from one side of the House to the other during the remaining divisions. He also introduced

proxy voting Proxy voting is a form of voting whereby a member of a decision-making body may delegate their voting power to a representative, to enable a vote in absence. The representative may be another member of the same body, or external. A person so ...

whereby an ill, absent member's vote could be counted. From 1929 until 1932 Petersen, by now a member of the governing

Country and Progressive National Party The Country and Progressive National Party was a short-lived conservative political party in the Australian state of Queensland. Formed in 1925, it combined the state's conservative forces in a single party and held office between 1929 and 1932 u ...

, was the Home Secretary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petersen, Jens Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly 1880 births 1953 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians