Herbert Johnson (Australian politician)

Johnson was born on 25 October 1889 in Northampton, Western Australia. He was the son of Catherine (née Hartigan) and Arthur Johnson. His father had been transported to Western Australia as a convict in 1867 for theft and later became a farmer.{{Australian Dictionary of Biography

|last=Bolton

|first=G. C.

|authorlink=

|year=1996

|id=A140652b

|title= Johnson, Herbert Victor (1889–1962)

|accessdate=2007-12-11 }}

Johnson's mother committed suicide when he was an infant, leaving nine children.{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3139414|title=Suicide of a woman at Northampton|newspaper=The West Australian|date=23 December 1890}}{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/211274717|title=Suicide at Northampton|newspaper=Victorian Express|location=Geraldton|date=27 December 1890}} His father later remarried and had a further five children.{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/148599619|title=Vic. Johnson|newspaper=Westralian Worker|date=12 July 1946}} Johnson received his education at a local convent school. He left school at a young age and began working as a shearer in the Murchison, Gascoyne and North-West. He claimed a world record for sheep shearing of "3761 sheep in 17½ days" in 1914.

Johnson joined the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) in 1908, the first Western Australian shearer to join the union after it organised the shearers. As an AWU organizer, he worked hard to maintain the conditions of pastoral workers during the 1920s and 1930s. He was secretary of the Geraldton branch of the Australian Labor Party from 1920 to 1934. In 1936, he was elected state secretary of the AWU and moved to the Perth suburb of Highgate.

File:20 Squadron RAAF Catalina aircraftmen with politicians Darwin Oct 1944 AWM 081564.jpg meet No. 20 Squadron RAAF Catalina groundcrew at Cairns, October 1944]]

In 1940, Johnson won a by-election for Kalgoorlie. On the death of John Curtin in July 1945, he was elected by the parliamentary caucus to the ensuing vacancy in the ministry and he was appointed Minister for the Interior—which among other things was responsible for northern development—and Assistant-Minister for Works and Housing from 1945 to 1946. He was chairman of the Australian War Memorial's board of management from 1945 to 1949 and gained funding for its expansion to house collections from World War II. His appointment as minister lapsed with the defeat of the Chifley government at the 1949 election.

In 1948, as interior minister, Johnson and his department opposed attempts to desegregate the North Australian Workers' Union (NAWU) and allow the admission of "full-blood" Indigenous Australians. A departmental memorandum stated that desegregation of the union would make it more difficult to enforce the Aborigines Ordinance 1918.{{cite book|chapter=The Limits of Solidarity: The North Australian Workers' Union as Advocates of Assimilation|first=Julia|last=Martínez|chapter-url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2652&context=artspapers|title=Contesting Assimilation|editor-first1=Tim|editor-last1=Rowse|page=117|publisher=API Network|isbn=1920845151|year=2005}}

He was unhappy with H. V. Evatt's leadership of the party during the 1955 split that led to the creation of the Democratic Labor Party and publicly expressed his concerns in 1957. This led the party to withhold endorsement of his candidacy at future elections, although he had already decided to retire at the 1958 election.

In 1913, Johnson married Ethel Lucas. He died in 1962 at Royal Perth Hospital, survived by his wife, two of his three sons and three of his four daughters.

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71430177|title=Vic. Johnson's Career|newspaper=The Worker|location=Brisbane, Queensland|date=1946-06-17|page=9|via=Trove}}

{{refend}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-off}}

{{s-bef|before= Joe Collings}}

{{s-ttl|title= Minister for the Interior |years=1945–1949}}

{{s-aft|after=Philip McBride}}

{{s-par|au}}

{{s-bef|before= Albert Green}}

{{s-ttl | title=Member for Kalgoorlie | years=1940–1958 }}

{{s-aft| after= Peter Browne }}

{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Herbert Victor}}

Category:1889 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia

Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Kalgoorlie

Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives

Category:Members of the Cabinet of Australia

Category:Trade unionists from Western Australia

Category:People from Northampton, Western Australia

Category:Sheep shearers

Category:Australian MPs 1940–1943

Category:Australian MPs 1943–1946

Category:Australian MPs 1946–1949

Category:Australian MPs 1949–1951

Category:Australian MPs 1951–1954

Category:Australian MPs 1954–1955

Category:Australian MPs 1955–1958