Joseph Sleeman

{{Short description|Australian politician}}

{{Use Australian English|date=March 2016}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2016}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = The Honourable

|name = Joseph Sleeman

|honorific-suffix =

|image = Joseph Sleeman.png

|image_size = 120px

|office = Speaker of the Legislative Assembly
of Western Australia

|term_start = 4 August 1939

|term_end = 31 July 1947

|predecessor = William Johnson

|successor = Charles North

|office2 = Member of the Legislative Assembly
of Western Australia

|constituency2 = Fremantle

|term_start2 = 22 March 1924

|term_end2 = 21 March 1959

|predecessor2 = Frank Gibson

|successor2 = Harry Fletcher

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1885|6|21|df=y}}

|birth_place = Inglewood, Victoria, Australia

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1970|7|6|1885|6|21|df=y}}

|death_place = Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia

|party = Labor

|alma_mater =

|religion =

}}

Joseph Bertram Sleeman (21 June 1885 – 6 July 1970) was an Australian politician who was a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1924 to 1959, representing the seat of Fremantle. He served as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1939 to 1947.

Sleeman was born in the small country town of Inglewood, Victoria. He and his parents moved to Western Australia in 1895, and he attended school in Day Dawn, a mining town in the state's Mid West. After working for a period as a storeman in Leonora, Sleeman moved to Fremantle (the port city of Perth), where he began working as an organiser for the Shop Assistants Union.[http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/library/MPHistoricalData.nsf/(Lookup)/6A3FB025D98A42A3482577E50028A7C6?OpenDocument Joseph Bertram Sleeman] – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 13 May 2016. At the 1924 state election, he stood for the seat of Fremantle, and defeated the sitting Nationalist member, Frank Gibson.{{cite book|last1=Black|first1=David|authorlink=David Black (historian)|last2=Prescott|first2=Valerie|title=Election statistics : Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890-1996|year=1997|publisher=Western Australian Parliamentary History Project and Western Australian Electoral Commission|location=Perth, [W.A.]|isbn=0730984095}} Following the 1939 election, Sleeman was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, going on to serve until the Labor government's defeat at the 1947 election. Only two other speakers have served for longer periods – Sir James Lee-Steere and John Hearman.[http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/intranet/libpages.nsf/WebFiles/FACTSHEETS+SN+02+Speakers+of+the+Legislative+Assembly.pdf/$FILE/SN+2+Speakers+of+the+Legislative+Assembly+2008.pdf Speakers of the Legislative Assembly] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051628/http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/intranet/libpages.nsf/WebFiles/FACTSHEETS+SN+02+Speakers+of+the+Legislative+Assembly.pdf/$FILE/SN+2+Speakers+of+the+Legislative+Assembly+2008.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }} – Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 13 May 2016. Sleeman continued in parliament until his retirement at the 1959 election, having spent nearly 35 years as the member for Fremantle. He died in July 1970, aged 85.

In 1992 Joe Sleeman Court, a housing complex on South Terrace, was named in Sleeman's honour and dedicated by the then MLA for Fremantle, Jim McGinty.{{citation |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Sleeman_Court_plaque.jpg |title=Joe Sleeman Court plaque |date=1992-11-07 }} A small road in the O'Connor industrial area, Sleeman Close, is also named after him.{{CiteQ|Q121022909}}