Joseph Cahill
John Joseph Cahill, also known as Joe Cahill or J. J. Cahill, was a long-serving New South Wales politician, railway worker, trade unionist and Labor Party Premier of New South Wales from 1952 to his death in 1959. Born the son of Irish migrants in Redfern, Cahill worked for the New South Wales Government Railways from the age of 16 before joining the Australian Labor Party. Being a prominent unionist organiser, including being dismissed for his role in the 1917 general strike, Cahill was elected to the Parliament of New South Wales for St George in 1925.
After many years of backbench service, including a term outside of parliament, Cahill was appointed Secretary for Public Works in 1941 and Minister for Local Government in the government of William McKell in 1944, where he led significant reforms of local government in the state, including establishing a Royal commission in 1945, and passing the landmark Local Government Act of 1948. Promoted to Deputy Premier in 1949, Cahill became Premier of New South Wales from April 1952 to his death in October 1959. His term as premier is primarily remembered for his government's role in post-war infrastructure development, which included the commissioning of the Sydney Opera House and construction of the expressway which now bears his name.
Early years and family
Joe Cahill, as he was popularly known, was born on 21 January 1891 in the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern, the son of Irish-born parents, Thomas Cahill, and Ellen Glynn. Cahill's father was born in County Limerick and was a NSW railways labourer at the nearby Eveleigh Railway Workshops, and his mother was the daughter of Irish immigrants from County Clare. After being educated at St Brigid's, Marrickville, and Patrician Brothers' School, Redfern, at age 16 he was apprenticed as a fitter for the New South Wales Government Railways at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops on 2 July 1907.As a member of the Workers' Educational Association and the Marrickville branch of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Cahill became politically active and joined the NSW Branch of the Labor Party. Like most Roman Catholics within the Labor Party he opposed conscription for World War I in 1916, and lost his railway job on 14 August 1917 after taking part in a general strike over railway workers' pay and conditions.
Cahill also made his first attempt to enter politics as a member of the Parliament of New South Wales, when he stood as the Labor candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat of Dulwich Hill at the March 1917 election. Bearing the marks of a young radical, Cahill campaigned on big ideas like the abolition of the Legislative Council and replacing the state Governor with the Lieutenant-Governor, but his comment that "the wealth of the country should be placed in one big pool" attracted amusement in the press. Cahill was subsequently defeated on a margin of 31-68% against the sitting Nationalist Party member, Tom Hoskins.
On 17 February 1918 his younger brother who also worked in the New South Wales railways, Sapper Thomas James Cahill, of the 4th Field Company, Australian Engineers, was killed in action in France. His father had also died in June 1916 at the age of 58 while on active service as a reservist Sergeant-Major in the Australian Garrison Artillery. After a period of difficult unemployment, Cahill found some work selling insurance amongst other temporary jobs, but was re-employed by the New South Wales Government Railways in mid-1922 at the Randwick Tramway Workshops.
On 11 November 1922, at St Brigid's Church, Marrickville, he married Esmey Mary Kelly, the daughter of public servant James Joseph Kelly, and they were to have three sons and two daughters. When their first son was born on 12 February 1924, they named him Thomas James after Cahill's younger brother. On 11 December 1926, another son was born, who they named John Joseph Cahill. A third son, Brian Francis Cahill, was born on 10 December 1930.
In 1922, after taking part in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat the AEU's NSW governing body through a federal council, Cahill among several others was sued by the union for "illegally holding office within the union". Although the suit was later dismissed by the Chief Judge in Equity, Philip Street, Cahill was banned from holding office in the union until 1925.
Early political career
Eight years after his first tilt at state politics, Cahill was elected as one of the members of the NSW Legislative Assembly seat of St George at the 1925 state election, which brought the Labor party back into government under Jack Lang. He was never counted among the close allies of Lang, and remained on the backbench throughout Lang's two terms in government. Cahill, along with half of the parliamentary caucus, supported Peter Loughlin, when the latter challenged Lang for the party leadership in September 1926. With the abolition of the St George constituency in 1930, Cahill ran for Arncliffe and was appointed party whip. However, Cahill lost his bid to be re-elected for Arncliffe to United Australia Party's Horace Harper, at the 1932 election, with the electoral tide sweeping out the dismissed Lang Labor government.This defeat, nevertheless, proved to be only a temporary setback, and Cahill found work as a shop inspector for a shoe retailer in the interim. Retaining his interest in political matters, Cahill stayed loyal to Lang when many in the ALP had deserted the flamboyant ex-Premier. He exclaimed to an Arncliffe Labor meeting: "Mr. Lang is the greatest friend the workers have ever had, and time will prove that Lang is right." In 1935, Cahill was returned to parliament in Arncliffe for the State Labor Party despite the overall defeat at the election, declaring that while "the Press had poisoned the minds of the people, ten years after he was dead the Press would proclaim Mr. Lang as the greatest hero Australia had seen for many a long day."
With Lang's leadership in doubt after a further election loss in 1938, Cahill abandoned his former praise of Lang, and he backed a caucus motion to support federal intervention in the state branch's factional infighting which had led to several of his colleagues defecting to the Industrial Labor Party, led by Bob Heffron, the member representing Botany in Sydney's south-east. Cahill subsequently supported William McKell, when he successfully challenged Lang for the Labor Party leadership in September 1939, and was elected to the party executive.
A frequent speaker in the assembly, Cahill often addressed his fellow parliamentarians on railway-related matters and lobbied the government for an extension of the Cooks River Tram Line to Arncliffe. Cahill was the Labor Party campaign director for the September 1940 federal election, which resulted in the ALP under John Curtin gaining the popular vote and winning three additional seats from Robert Menzies' United Australia Party Government, which was forced into minority status, and later fell in a confidence vote in October 1941.
Minister of the Crown
The Labor Party swept back into office at the May 1941 election, winning 26 seats over the United Australia Party's loss of 33 seats, and McKell was commissioned by the Governor, Lord Wakehurst, to form a government. When Arncliffe was abolished at the 1941 election, Cahill switched to the new electorate of Cook's River. On 16 May 1941, Cahill was sworn in along with the rest of the ministry as Secretary of Public Works by the Governor at Government House.Commencing office during wartime, Cahill's role as Public Works minister was crucial through the direction of various projects to facilitate continued economic growth and in support of the war effort. The government had long supported the re-establishment of a state shipbuilding enterprise following the UAP Government of Bertram Stevens closing the NSW Government Dockyard in Newcastle in 1933, and consequently in 1942 Cahill directed the opening of the NSW Government Engineering and Shipbuilding Undertaking in Newcastle, which was enshrined in the passage of the Government Engineering and Shipbuilding Undertaking Act, 1943. On his role, Cahill declared:
Other projects commenced included various war works such as defence installations, air fields, prisoner-of-war camps, alongside important civil improvements to water and electricity infrastructure which were not delayed due to the war. By 1943, Cahill was already heavily involved in post-war infrastructure planning, with the McKell Government enabling significant investment in new public works projects such as new ports and roads. With the launching of the 22nd vessel from the State Dockyard in October 1945, Cahill declared that he was proud to have been involved in its successful re-establishment and noted that the Dockyard would "continue to play a significant part in the permanent establishment of shipbuilding, which is so essential to the industrial development of the Commonwealth." As the Government had predicted, with the end of the war came a great need for new investment in infrastructure, and in 1946 Cahill introduced new bills for substantial projects such as £1.7 million for a new Mental Hospital at North Ryde and £600,000 for works to dredge and improve the Cooks River and Wolli Creek.
In 1944 Cahill became Minister for Local Government, a position he would hold for eight years; he used this position to augment local governments' powers. He established the State Brickworks at Homebush Bay. In addition, he supervised the establishment of the Electricity Commission of New South Wales, which brought electricity to much of rural New South Wales, and the Cumberland County Council, which developed the landmark county planning scheme in 1948.
In September 1949, the serving Deputy Premier, Jack Baddeley, announced his retirement from parliament and his appointment as Director of the State Coal Mines Control Board, and Cahill stood to succeed him as deputy. At the caucus meeting on 21 September, Cahill was elected Deputy Premier 21 votes to 20 against Attorney-General Clarence Martin.