23 Facts About Percy Clarey

Percy James Clarey was an Australian trade union leader and politician.

Percy Clarey served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1943 to 1949 and represented the Australian Labor Party in the Victorian Legislative Council and Australian House of Representatives.

The family soon moved to Melbourne, and Percy Clarey attended South Yarra State School and the Working Men's College.

Percy Clarey joined the labour movement as a teenager and was secretary of the Kensington branch of the ALP.

Percy Clarey served as federal president of both the Amalgamated Food Preserving Employees' Union of Australia and the Federated Storemen and Packers' Union of Australia.

Percy Clarey married schoolteacher Katherine Mary Isabel Chambers at Box Hill, Victoria on 31 March 1917.

Meanwhile, Percy Clarey continued to rise in the union movement, being president of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1934 and president of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council in 1935.

In 1937, Percy Clarey was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council, a position he held until 1949.

Percy Clarey was minister of labour and public health during 1943 and minister of labour and employment from 1945 to 1947 under the premiership of John Cain.

Percy Clarey was criticised for holding the positions of labour minister and President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions simultaneously.

Percy Clarey married divorcee Florence Midiam Cater, nee Knowles, on 21 August 1948.

Percy Clarey conceded that the Communist Party had a right to exist, but was strenuously opposed to communism in the ALP.

In 1948, Percy Clarey publicly supported the White Australia policy following criticism from the World Council of Churches.

Percy Clarey said that allowing non-white immigration would introduce racial tension similar to South Africa and United States and lower the national standard of living, as "Australia does not desire the colored peoples of the world to be brought into this country to be hewers of wood and drawers of water".

In 1949, Percy Clarey transferred to the federal House of Representatives, winning the seat of Bendigo by only 152 votes.

Percy Clarey was defeated for the deputy leadership in 1951 by Arthur Calwell, losing by nine votes on the third ballot and outpolling veterans Eddie Ward and Allan Fraser.

Sometimes accused of being a "bosses' man" and a "strike breaker" by union opponents, Percy Clarey was nevertheless a supporter of the Indonesians against Dutch colonialism.

Percy Clarey visited Israel in the 1950s and subsequently "spoke up on behalf of Israel on many issues" in parliament.

Percy Clarey was obituarised in the Australian Jewish News as "a friend of the Jewish community over a period of many years".

In 1954, Percy Clarey was sent to New York City as Australia's delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.

Percy Clarey had been ill since a bout of pneumonia in February 1960.

Percy Clarey was survived by the sons of his first marriage.

Percy Clarey was given a state funeral before being cremated with Methodist forms.