13 Facts About Joe Collings

Joseph Silver Collings was a long-serving Australian politician.

Joe Collings was a hardworking Australian Labor Party bureaucrat with valuable writing and speaking talents, who was eventually rewarded by a five-year stint as a federal government minister.

Joe Collings was born in Brighton, England and educated at Brighton Board School and by his parents.

Joe Collings reported for the Sussex Daily News before emigrating with his parents to Brisbane when he was 18.

Joe Collings worked as a farm labourer, failed as a selector and, in 1885, married Kate McInerney.

Joe Collings found work in the footwear industry and was at one time secretary of the Queensland Boot and Shoe Manufacturers' Association.

Joe Collings worked with "scabs" during a strike in 1895 and was ostracised by the Australian Boot Trade Employees' Federation although he worked hard for the labour movement.

Joe Collings unsuccessfully contested elections to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland in 1908,1909, and 1915, but was elected to Balmoral Shire Council from 1910 to 1913.

Joe Collings attended Labor Party conventions from 1905 and was elected to the Queensland central executive of the party between 1913 and 1928.

Joe Collings was appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council in 1920 and took part in the successful vote to abolish it in 1922.

Joe Collings was elected the Australian Senate in 1931 and became Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in 1935 and Leader of the Government in the Senate with the coming to power of the Curtin government in October 1941.

Joe Collings did not contest the 1949 election and retired from the Senate in June 1950.

Joe Collings died at his home, 694 Flinders Parade, Brighton on 20 June 1955, survived by one son and one daughter of his six children.