Thomas Paterson

The Honourable Thomas Patersson
Deputy Leader of the Australian Country Party
In office 19 November 1929 – 27 November 1937
Leader	Earle Page
Preceded by	William Gibson
Succeeded by	Harold Thorby
Minister for the Interior
In office 9 November 1934 – 29 November 1937
Prime Minister	Joseph Lyons
Preceded by	Eric Harrison
Succeeded by	John McEwen
Minister for Markets and Transport
In office 10 December 1928 – 22 October 1929 Minister for Markets: 19 January 1928 – 10 December 1928 Minister for Markets and Migration: 18 June 1926 – 19 January 1928
Prime Minister	Stanley Bruce
Preceded by	Victor Wilson
Succeeded by	Parker Moloney
Member of the Australian Parliament for Gippsland
In office 16 December 1922 – 7 July 1943
Preceded by	George Wise
Succeeded by	George Bowden
Personal details
Born	(1882-11-20)20 November 1882 Aston, Warwickshire, England
Died	24 January 1952(1952-01-24) (aged 69) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Country
Spouse(s)	Elsie Jane Tyrrell ​ (m. 1908)​
Occupation	Farmer

Thomas Paterson (20 November 1882 – 24 January 1952) was an Australian politician who served as deputy leader of the Country Party from 1929 to 1937. He held ministerial office in the governments of Stanley Bruce and Joseph Lyons, representing the Division of Gippsland in Victoria from 1922 to 1943. He played a leading role in the creation of the Victorian Country Party as the political arm of the Victorian Farmers' Union.

Early life[]

Paterson was born in Aston, near Birmingham, England, and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Ayr Grammar School. He became a shoe salesman in 1897 and later a branch manager, but resigned in 1908 to study farming. In November 1908, he married Elsie Jane Tyrrell and next day set out to Australia with his wife, mother, brother and cousin, where he joined two other brothers on a dairy farm at Springfield, near Romsey, Victoria.^[1]

Political career[]

Paterson joined the Victorian Farmers' Union in 1916, became its president in March 1922 and in November 1922 chaired a conference that led to the creation of the Victorian Country Party. He stood unsuccessfully for the Senate in the 1919 elections and for the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1920 but in 1922 elections he won the federal seat of Gippsland, defeating the Nationalist George Wise. His victory was one of several Country Party gains that forced the Nationalists to go into Coalition with the Country Party in order to stay in office.

In parliament, he campaigned for a subsidy for dairy exports to be paid for by a tax on Australian consumers and known by opponents as "Paterson's Curse" (referring to the Australian name for Echium plantagineum). £20 million were paid under this scheme between 1926 and 1933. Paterson was Minister for Markets and Migration from June 1926 to January 1928, Minister for Markets from January to December 1928 and Minister for Markets and Transport from December 1928 to October 1929. He was deputy leader of the parliamentary Country Party from 1929 to 1937, under Earle Page, and was acting leader for several months in 1933 following the death of Page's son.

He was appointed Minister for the Interior in the Lyons coalition government in November 1934. Also in November 1934 he made an exclusion order against Czech writer Egon Kisch which was later overturned by the High Court. He resigned as minister and deputy party leader after the 1937 elections, as a result of the 1936 controversy over the exclusion from Australia of Mabel Freer, a white British woman born in India, who, under the terms of the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act, had failed a dictation test in Italian.^[2]

During his time as Minister for the Interior, Paterson was praised by William Cooper of the Australian Aborigines' League for his goodwill and support of the League's requests for greater government assistance to Aboriginal people.^[3]

Paterson remained prominent in Country Party affairs and helped form a breakaway party from the Victorian Country Party that was loyal to the federal parliamentary Country Party in March 1938. He helped reconcile the federal and Victorian parties in 1943, but did not stand for re-election in 1943 elections. He died of coronary vascular disease at his Melbourne home, survived by his wife and elder son.^[1]

References[]

Sources[]

• Attwood and Markus (2004) Thinking Black: William Cooper and the Aborigines' Advancement League, Aboriginal Studies Press: Canberra. ISBN 0 85575 459 1.