James Michael Sheehan (24 July 1885 – 10 April 1967) was an Australian trade unionist and politician.
Born in
Castlemaine Castlemaine may mean:
* Castlemaine, Victoria, a town in Victoria, Australia
** Castlemaine Football Club, an Australian rules football club
** Castlemaine railway station
* Castlemaine, County Kerry, a town in Ireland
* Castlemaine Brewery, Western ...
,
Victoria, he received a primary education before becoming a railway worker.
He was an organiser 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 pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exerci ...
and President of the
Victorian Trades Hall Council, as well as being an active member of the Victorian
Labor Party.
On 12 July 1938, he was appointed to the
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...
for Victoria to fill a casual vacancy caused by the death of Labor Senator
John Barnes. The
Australian Constitution
The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a constitutional document that is supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a federation under a constitutional monarchy and outlines the structure and powers of the ...
dictated that an appointment to a casual vacancy was required to be re-contested at the next election and while Sheehan was number one on the Labor ticket, he was defeated in 1940 with the
UAP-Country coalition winning all four seats.
He was third on Labor's ticket at the , with Labor winning all three seats,
taking his place at the in 1944. He remained in the Senate until his retirement in 1961, taking effect in 1962.
Sheehan died in 1967, aged 81.
References
1885 births
1967 deaths
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
Members of the Australian Senate for Victoria
Members of the Australian Senate
20th-century Australian politicians
People from Castlemaine, Victoria
{{Australia-Labor-senator-stub