Sir George Stephenson BeebyKBE was an Australian politician, judge and author. He was one of the founders of the Labor Party in New South Wales, and represented the party in state parliament from 1907 to 1912. He fell out with the party and later served as an independent, a Nationalist, and a Progressive. He left parliament in 1920 to join the state arbitration court, and in 1926 was appointed to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. He was Chief Judge from 1939 until his retirement in 1941.
Early life
Beeby was born in Alexandria, Sydney, the second son of English-born Edward Augustus Beeby, a book-keeper, and his wife Isabel, née Thompson. Beeby was educated at Crown Street Public School and entered the education department of N.S.W. on 3 July 1884 where he became a pupil teacher at Macdonald Town Public School. Subsequently he was an accountant, and in 1900 qualified as a solicitor. He had become interested in the land taxation proposals of Henry George in 1890 and was prominent in the beginnings of the New South Wales Labor Party. Beeby worked as a journalist for a while and then began practising as a solicitor. The 1901 arbitration act brought him much business; it was stated in 1906 that his firm had been concerned in two hundred disputes. In January 1907 Beeby stood as a Labor candidate for Blayney at a by-election due to the resignation of W. P. Crick, but Beeby was defeated by 23 votes.
Parliamentary career
Beeby won the seat of Blayney for the Labor Party at the 1907 state election, and with William Holman was successful in considerably modifying the amending industrial disputes bill brought in by Charles Wade. When James McGowen formed the first New South Wales Labor ministry in October 1910, Beeby was his minister of public instruction and of labour and industry until 11 September 1911 when he became minister for public works until December 1912. He had, however, come to the conclusion that the time had arrived for the formation of a party which would include the moderates of all parties. He resigned from the Labor Party and parliament in December 1912, and was re-elected for Blayney as an independent on 23 January 1913. Prior to the 1913 state election, he created the National Progressive Party and ran a slate of 10 candidates. Only he polled over 10 percent of the vote, winning 19.5 percent in the seat of Waverley. His voters helped elected a Labor candidate in the second round. He subsequently announced that his party had failed and there was no room for a third party in New South Wales. Beeby had been called to the bar in 1911 and now worked up a successful practice as a barrister. When Holman formed his national ministry in November 1916 Beeby became minister for labour and industry with a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council. In 1918 Beeby, who had in the meanwhile been elected to the assembly for Wagga Wagga, succeeded in passing an industrial arbitration amendment act though it was strongly opposed by the Labour party. Towards the end of 1918 he visited Britain and the United States and, shortly after his return in June 1919, resigned from the government as a protest against administrative acts in connexion with the sale of wheat and the allotting of coal contracts. In March 1920, with the introduction of proportional representation, he was elected as the member for Murray.
Judge
In August 1920, Beeby resigned from parliament to be appointed a judge of the New South Wales arbitration court. In 1928 he became a member of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration bench. In the same year Beeby imposed an award favourable to the Federal Government's industrial policy which the Waterside Workers' Federation rejected. This resulted in strike action and later violence. Beeby was appointed chief judge in March 1939 and was knighted in the same year.
Beeby retired in 1941 and died on 18 July 1942. He married in 1892 and was survived by his wife, a son and three daughters. One daughter, Doris Isobel Beeby, was a communist party member and sought higher women's wages. His son, Edward Augustus, was a musician and playwright. Edward opened the Patch Theatre Company in Perth WA in 1939.
Publications
Beeby was the author of Three Years of Industrial Arbitration in New South Wales, a pamphlet; Concerning Ordinary People, a volume of readable plays; In Quest of Pan, a satire in verse on some of the Australian poets of the period; and A Loaded Legacy, a light novel which appeared in 1930.
