Sidney Wainman O'Flaherty (2 July 1886 – 18 November 1967) was an Australian politician. He was an

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 ...

member of 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 ...

for

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

from 1944 to 1962. He had previously served as a Labor member of the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly (also known as the lower house) is one of two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia, the other being the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assem ...

from 1918 to 1921.

Early life and career

Born in

Silverton, New South Wales Silverton is a village at the far west of New South Wales, Australia, north-west of Broken Hill. At the , Silverton had a population of 48. Silverton sprang up after the discovery of rich silver deposits, although it was soon eclipsed by an ev ...

, his family soon moved to

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, where he was raised. He attended the Adelaide School of Mines before becoming an architect and accountant, and later secretary of the

Miscellaneous Workers' Union The Federated Miscellaneous Workers' Union (FMWUl commonly known as the 'Missos') was an Australian trade union from 1915 to 1992. It represented an extremely diverse and disparate range of occupations, but its core support came from workers empl ...

Political career

In 1918, he was elected to the

as 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 ...

member for Murray, serving until 1921. In the 1931 Labor split in the wake of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, O'Flaherty became associated with the splinter Lang Labor Party, which supported the ideas of

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales actin ...

Jack Lang. He unsuccessfully contested the 1931 federal election for Lang Labor, but resigned in April 1932 along with a number of other figures, including sole MP Martin Collaton, who were disgruntled with the South Australian party leadership. They formed the Lang Australian Labor Party with O'Flaherty as party president, but the new party merged into the official Labor Party in September. He contested the 1933 state election, standing for the official Labor Party in the seat of Barossa, but was unsuccessful. He was again unsuccessful as the Labor candidate for Thebarton in 1941. In 1943 he became President of the South Australian Labor Party, but later that year he was elected to the

as a Labor Senator for South Australia.

Retirement and death

He held the seat until his retirement in 1961. O'Flaherty died in 1967.

References

1886 births 1967 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for South Australia Members of the South Australian House of Assembly 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-senator-stub