31 Facts About Vince Gair

Vince Gair served as Premier of Queensland from 1952 until 1957, when his stormy relations with the trade union movement saw him expelled from the Labor Party.

Vince Gair was elected to the Australian Senate and led the Democratic Labor Party from 1965 to 1973.

Vince Gair's parents were founding members of the Labor Party in Queensland in the 1890s.

Vince Gair began work with the Department of Railways upon the family's move to Dutton Park, Queensland.

Vince Gair worked at consolidating his hold on the marginal electorate, at which he was largely successful except in the 1938 election, when a newly formed Protestant Labor Party targeted his seat.

Vince Gair fended off the challenge and retained a low profile in Parliament.

Vince Gair was a backbencher for ten years during the William Forgan Smith government before being appointed as Secretary for Mines under the elderly Frank Cooper in 1942.

Vince Gair had not previously held office in a trade union.

The Industrial Groups were supported by Vince Gair, who hoped to use them to cement his personal power base within the party's organisational wing, as well as by union leader Joe Bukowski and the AWU.

Hanlon died on 15 January 1952 and Vince Gair, having been acting premier since the previous August, was elected by the ALP Caucus to succeed him on 17 January.

Vince Gair came into conflict with Bukowski when the AWU in 1955 began making allegations that there was corruption in the process of granting and extending pastoral leases in the state.

Bukowski publicly expressed a desire to appear before the Bar of Parliament to detail his allegations, in which he was supported by Frank Nicklin, then leader of the Opposition; but Vince Gair defeated his motion in parliament.

Vince Gair immediately set up a royal commission, which resulted in the laying of criminal charges against Lands Minister Tom Foley.

Vince Gair discovered that the AWU had gained its information about the scandal from a senior public official, Vivian Creighton.

Vince Gair pressed for Creighton's resignation on the grounds of official misconduct.

Vince Gair was ultimately successful in a negotiated end to the strike, but the effect was to cement an unlikely anti-Gair alliance between the Queensland Trades and Labour Council and the AWU.

Vince Gair announced in 1955 that although the state's finances did not permit the extension of annual leave, the government would extend entitlements to long service leave.

The majority of Vince Gair's Cabinet refused to accept what it saw as direction from the Central Executive, and in February 1956, Bukowski and Egerton organised the numbers at the next Labor Party convention to vote in favour of a leave increase.

Vince Gair still refused to budge, thinking that the executive would not dare to expel him.

For its part, the QCE did not believe that Vince Gair would take many of his caucus with him.

Vince Gair took a total of 25 defectors from the ALP Caucus with him, including all the Cabinet except Deputy Premier Jack Duggan, to form the Queensland Labor Party.

Vince Gair tried to gain Country Party support, but talks with Nicklin broke down when federal Country Party leader Arthur Fadden told Nicklin that he had a chance to become Premier himself.

Vince Gair was re-elected at South Brisbane as a QLP candidate.

Vince Gair unsuccessfully contested the Senate election of 1961 for the DLP.

Vince Gair became the second former Queensland Premier after Anderson Dawson to be elected to Federal Parliament as a Queensland representative.

On his election to the Senate, Vince Gair became the federal DLP's leader, a post he held until 1973.

Vince Gair subsequently became disillusioned with the DLP's other senators, who forced him to resign as leader in October 1973.

In Canberra, a group of Country Party senators kept Vince Gair occupied in their office, away from the President of the Senate Magnus Cormack, drinking beer and eating prawns, until 6pm.

Vince Gair later claimed he was perfectly aware of why he was being feted by his colleagues, some of whom were former enemies.

Vince Gair returned to Brisbane, and died on 11 November 1980, aged 79, on the fifth anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam government.

Vince Gair was given a state funeral and was buried in Nudgee Cemetery.