Moses Gabb

Gabb was born in Glenelg, and was educated at St Peter's College. He worked for printers A. & E. Lewis and then for grocers Barns, Stobie, & Co. after leaving school. He had studied at night to become a Methodist missionary while working at the grocers, and after qualifying for home mission work, worked from 1905 reopening a mission on Kangaroo Island, then at churches in Cockburn, Silverton, Kalangadoo and Penola, and on the Tea Tree Gully–Modbury circuit. He passed as a candidate for ministry and studied at Prince Alfred College in 1908, before spending two and a half years preaching from a motor launch on the Murray River between Swan Reach and Loxton. He then left missionary work because of doctrinal differences, did not enter the ministry, and instead opened a store at Alberton until his election to parliament. He married Florence Ethel Hobbs on 9 October 1912. He was publicly involved in the campaign against conscription during World War I, and unsuccessfully contested the 1918 state election in the electorate of Barossa, narrowly losing to Sir Richard Butler.{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography | id2=gabb-joel-moses-10263 | title=Joel Moses Gabb (1882–1951) | last=Lloyd | first=C.J. | year=1996 | volume=14}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105456715 |title=Mr. J. M. Gabb. |newspaper=The Daily Herald |volume=8 |issue=2476 |location=Adelaide |date=26 February 1918 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78652995 |title=Mr. Moses Gabb Dead |newspaper=The Border Watch |volume=90 |issue=10,278 |location=South Australia |date=8 March 1951 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article165611997 |title=Mr. Gabb Was Once Missionary |newspaper=The Observer |volume=LXXXVI |issue=4,504 |location=South Australia |date=19 October 1929 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=43 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63771628 |title=Moses Gabb |newspaper=The Mail |volume=11 |issue=545 |location=Adelaide |date=21 October 1922 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} Gabb was a strict teetotaller.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18493985 |title=Candid Comment |newspaper=The Sunday Herald |issue=111 |location=New South Wales|date=11 March 1951 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In 1919, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Labor member for Angas, defeating long-serving Nationalist MP and Minister for Home and Territories Paddy Glynn.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27671567 |title=South Australia. |newspaper=The West Australian |volume=XXXV |issue=5,527 |date=25 December 1919 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} He drew public attention in 1920 when he refused to accept a salary increase from £600 to £1,000.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130376710 |title=Mr. Moses Gabb, ex-MHR. |newspaper=The News |volume=56 |issue=8,604 |location=Adelaide |date=6 March 1951 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} He was known for often calling quorum when the amount of MPs in the parliamentary chamber was low, believing that its strict application forced MPs to do their elected duties. He was re-elected at the 1922 election, defeating George Ritchie, who had resigned as state Treasurer to challenge Gabb. Gabb was defeated by Nationalist candidate Walter Parsons in 1925, but defeated Parsons in 1929 to regain the seat.

In 1931, he joined Joseph Lyons and several other members in leaving the Labor Party in the 1931 Labor split and supported a no-confidence motion in Labor Prime Minister James Scullin; Gabb stated that he believed Scullin was a "sincere man", but strongly disapproved of Treasurer Ted Theodore.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139099663 |title=Mr. Moses Gabb |newspaper=Cootamundra Herald |location=New South Wales|date=11 February 1931 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} Unlike his colleagues, did not join the new United Australia Party and instead remained in parliament as an independent. In the same year, the Sydney Morning Herald described Gabb as being an "unexciting speaker" and "a sort of inverted alchemist afflicted with an ambition for turning gold into lead."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16783212 |title=From The Gallery. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=29,146 |date=4 June 1931 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}} He responded to criticism for wasting parliamentary time with quorum calls in May by stating "if the economy were really considered this show [parliament] would be shut down" and "close it and let me act as Mussolini and I will run things in a better way!"{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article95227512 |title="Let Me Act As Mussolini" |newspaper=Kalgoorlie Miner |volume=37 |issue=9821 |location=Western Australia |date=23 May 1931 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}

He was re-elected as an independent with the support of the Emergency Committee of South Australia at the 1931 federal election. In 1932, he moved a bill to reduce parliamentary salaries to £600, which while opposed by the vast majority of MPs, caused Minister for Commerce Charles Hawker to resign from the ministry in order to vote for the bill.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229252757 |title=Hawker's Word Was His Bond |newspaper=The Sun |issue=7093 |location=Sydney|date=23 September 1932 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=10 (FINAL EXTRA) |via=National Library of Australia}} Gabb's seat of Angas was abolished in a redistribution prior to the 1934 election, at which he retired.

After losing his seat in 1925, he was secretary of the South Australian branch of the Federated Gas Employees' Industrial Union until he regained the seat in 1929.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45693311 |title=Former M.H.R. Found Dead |newspaper=The Advertiser |volume=93 |issue=28,831 |location=Adelaide |date=7 March 1951 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48634348 |title=Death of Mr. J. M. Gabb |newspaper=The Barrier Miner |volume=LXIV |issue=17,403 |location=New South Wales|date=6 March 1951 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}} He contested the 1938 state election as an independent, nominating against Premier Richard Layton Butler in his seat of Light, but was unsuccessful.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article95942065 |title=Premier To Contest Light Seat Against Four Men Mr. Moses Gabb Seeks To Enter Assembly |newspaper=The Recorder |issue=12,130 |location=South Australia |date=24 February 1938 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}} Gabb rarely listened to radio coverage of politics in later years because he felt broadcasting was bringing Parliament into disrepute. He remained publicly critical of parliamentary salary increases in later life, accusing politicians of "feathering their nests".{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55895077 |title=Moses Gabb Hits Out At Politicians |newspaper=The Mail |volume=36 |issue=1,846 |location=Adelaide |date=11 October 1947 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} He killed himself at his Rosewater home in 1951, and was cremated.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45700587 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Advertiser |volume=93 |issue=28,832 |location=Adelaide |date=8 March 1951 |access-date=17 October 2016 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}

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{{succession box | title=Member for Angas | before=Paddy Glynn| after=Walter Parsons| years=1919–1925}}

{{s-bef|before=Walter Parsons}}

{{s-ttl | title=Member for Angas | years=1929–1934}}

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Category:1882 births

Category:1951 deaths

Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia

Category:Australian politicians who died by suicide

Category:Independent members of the Parliament of Australia

Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Angas

Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives

Category:Politicians from Adelaide

Category:Australian MPs 1919–1922

Category:Australian MPs 1922–1925

Category:Australian MPs 1929–1931

Category:Australian MPs 1931–1934