Thomas Price (South Australian politician)

Tom Price was born in Brymbo, Denbighshire, Wales in 1852 to John and Jane Price. His family moved to Liverpool in 1853 where Tom grew up.{{cite book |last1=Weekes |first1=Steven |title=Price, Thomas (Tom) (1852–1909) |chapter=Thomas (Tom) Price (1852–1909) |url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/price-thomas-tom-8109 |website=Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |access-date=26 November 2019}} Tom Price emigrated to South Australia with his family in 1883. He was a stonecutter, teacher, lay preacher, businessman, stonemason and clerk-of-works. As a stonemason, Price helped to build the Parliament House of South Australia, a building he would later serve in as an elected politician.

Image:SAULP1893.jpeg.]]

Price quickly became involved in trade union activity, and was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly for Sturt in April 1893,{{cite web |url=http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/AboutParliament/From1836/Documents/StatisticalRecordoftheLegislature1836to20093.pdf |title=Statistical Record of the Legislature 1836 to 2009 |publisher=Parliament of South Australia |access-date=25 September 2013 |archive-date=12 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312023915/http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/AboutParliament/From1836/Documents/StatisticalRecordoftheLegislature1836to20093.pdf |url-status=dead }} becoming Labor leader in 1899. He contested the single statewide Division of South Australia at the 1901 federal election as the second of two Labor candidates behind Lee Batchelor. The seat elected seven members, Price finished eighth with a 38.2 percent vote.

{{see also|Price-Peake Government}}

File:Price Ministry.jpeg

Price came to power at the 1905 state election in a minority government, the Price-Peake administration, after increasing his party's representation from five to 15 in the 42-member lower house, with a primary vote of 41.3 percent, an increase of 22.2 percent. With the support of eight liberals headed by Archibald Peake, Price forced conservative Premier Richard Butler to resign. Price retained the premiership at the 1906 double dissolution election with an additional five Labor seats in the House of Assembly, just two short of a parliamentary majority in their own right, with a primary vote of 44.8 percent, an increase of 3.5 percent. It was the world's first stable Labor government, and was so successful that, following the 1910 election, Labor, led by John Verran, formed the first of the state's many majority governments. On Price's death in 1909, Peake formed a minority government until 1910.

Price introduced many reforms, including free state secondary schools, the formation of wages boards, the institution of a minimum wage, and the establishment of the Municipal Tramways Trust through nationalisation. The costly administration of the Northern Territory was surrendered to the Federal government, and there was limited reform of the Legislative Council. Price obtained a double dissolution on the issue of the reform of the upper house. Nevertheless, the Council continued to be intransigent regarding its reform, and Price accepted its compromise proposal of a £17 householder franchise. Labor's left wing criticised him for the concession.

The Price Government enacted a number of laws relating to social matters: the suppression of brothels and gaming, the control and care of drunkards, and the consolidation of legislation on the supply of alcohol and local option in liquor licensing. The government also achieved successive budget surpluses and reduced the accumulated public debt.{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=peake-archibald-henry-7995 |title=Peake, Archibald Henry (1859–1920) |access-date=23 August 2022}}

File:Funeral of Thomas Price.jpeg

Price suffered from diabetes but died from tuberculosis of the throat{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article77453929 |title=Death of the Hon. T. Price. |newspaper=The Border Watch |volume=XLIX |issue=4729 |location=South Australia |date=2 June 1909 |access-date=23 July 2019 |page=3 |via=Trove}} or lungs{{cite news |last1=Sexton |first1=Mike |title=Tom Price biography: Book launch for first SA Labor premier brings together all sides of politics |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-25/politicians-unite-biography-first-sa-labor-premier-tom-price/6261750 |newspaper=ABC News |date=25 February 2015 |access-date=30 August 2021}} at Mount Lofty on 31 May 1909. He was given a State funeral and buried at Mitcham Cemetery.

An island of the Whidby Group off the south-west coast of Eyre Peninsula had been left unnamed after Matthew Flinders' early explorations. It was named Price Island by the Government of South Australia in his honour. A guiding light for mariners was also erected on the island.[https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64247741 "Islands of the West Coast."] The Register, South Australia (1925-09-02). Retrieved 2014-02-16.

In 2015 a biography of Thomas Price was published and the book launch was attended by South Australian politicians from both sides of politics. At the launch, Premier Jay Weatherill labelled Price "a Labor hero".

In 2019, one hundred and ten years after Price's death, a plaque was officially placed at Brownhill Creek Recreation Park in his honour.{{cite web |title=First SA Labor premier Tom Price honoured |url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6391124/first-sa-labor-premier-tom-price-honoured/ |website=Canberra Times |date=17 September 2019 |access-date=30 August 2021}}

Price married Anne Elizabeth Lloyd (c.1860 – 1 September 1950) on 14 April 1881 at St David's Welsh Church of England in Liverpool. Anne played an active role in Price's election campaigns{{Cite news |date=1928-01-19 |title=WOMEN JUSTICES |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129161923 |access-date=2024-03-29 |work=News |publisher=National Library of Australia |location=Adelaide, South Australia |page=8}} She was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for many years. After Price's death, Anne was one of four women appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1915, the first in Australia.{{cite news |date=7 July 1915 |title=Women Justices |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45345677 |access-date=27 August 2016 |newspaper=The Barrier Miner |location=New South Wales, Australia |page=4 |via=Trove |volume=XXVIII |issue=8388}} She considered her duties as a JP an important privilege. She was invited to sit on the Bench, in an unofficial capacity, at the local court by the commissioner James George Russell, and she was the first woman to do so. Due to an accident while on a trip to Britain, Anne withdrew from taking an active part in public life in 1925.

Price and Ann had seven children.

• John Lloyd Price (14 February 1882 – 23 April 1941) MHA for Port Adelaide 1915–1925 and MHR.
• Edward Hugh Price (1884–1954), engineer with the Harbors Board
• Walter Davies Price MC (24 March 1886 – 29 July 1944) distinguished soldier and public servant.
• (Thomas) Arthur Price (1888–1942), a railways employee,{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43245302 |title=A Rail Car Mishap |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |date=25 October 1924 |access-date=27 August 2016 |page=13 |via=Trove}}
• Annie Mary "Ann" Price (1890–1985), married Ernest A. Pengelley in 1914 in Brisbane.{{Cite news |date=1914-05-12 |title=Family Notices |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210287234 |access-date=2024-03-29 |work=Express and Telegraph |publisher=National Library of Australia |page=1}}
• Ada Olive "Olive" Price (1891–1952) married Horace Wicks in 1915.{{Cite news |date=1915-09-27 |title=Family Notices |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5481956 |access-date=2024-03-29 |work=Advertiser |publisher=National Library of Australia |page=6}}
• Florence Gwendoline "Flo" Price (1894–1957) married Alfred Charles Clarke in 1920.{{Cite news |date=1920-04-19 |title=Family Notices |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210553677 |access-date=2024-03-29 |work=Express and Telegraph |publisher=National Library of Australia |page=2}}

Tom Price was an active Methodist and Freemason.

{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-off}}

{{s-bef|before=John Darling Jr.}}

{{s-ttl|title=Leader of the Opposition of South Australia|years=1904–1905}}

{{s-aft|after=Richard Butler}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Richard Butler}}

{{s-ttl|title=Premier of South Australia|years=1905–1909}}

{{s-aft|after= Archibald Peake}}

|-

{{s-bef | before= Richard Foster }}

{{s-ttl | title=Commissioner of Public Works | years= 1905{{spaced ndash}}1909 }}

{{s-aft|after=Laurence O'Loughlin}}

|-

{{s-par|au-sa}}

{{s-bef|before=William Stock}}

{{s-ttl | title=Member for Sturt | years=1893–1902 | alongside=John Jenkins}}

{{s-non|reason=District abolished}}

|-

{{s-new|district}}

{{s-ttl | title=Member for Torrens | years=1902–1909 | alongside=John Jenkins}}

{{s-aft|after=Thomas Ryan}}

|-

{{s-ppo}}

{{s-bef|before=Lee Batchelor}}

{{s-ttl|title=Leader of the United Labor Party|years=1899–1909}}

{{s-aft|after= John Verran}}

{{s-end}}

{{Premiers of South Australia}}

{{Leaders of the Australian Labor Party (SA division)}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Thomas}}

Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia

Category:Premiers of South Australia

Category:1852 births

Category:1909 deaths

Category:Colony of South Australia people

Category:Leaders of the opposition in South Australia

Category:Welsh emigrants to colonial Australia

Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis

Category:Members of the South Australian House of Assembly

Category:19th-century Australian politicians

Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Australia