Vince Gair

His parents were founding members of the Labor Party in Queensland in the 1890s.

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

Vincent Clair Gair (25 February 1901 – 11 November 1980) was an Australian politician.

In 1916 he joined the Labor Party.

He married Florence Glynn in 1924.

She died in an accident five years later.

The Queensland state electorate of South Brisbane was held from 1929 to 1932 by Neil MacGroarty, Attorney-General in the government of Arthur Moore.

MacGroarty was influential in creating the Mungana Royal Commission to destroy the political career of Ted Theodore, and reportedly incurred the displeasure of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, James Duhig.

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.

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

In 1941, Gair's only daughter from his first marriage died.

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.

In 1944 he remarried, to Ellen Mary Sexton; the couple had two sons.

The same year he became Minister for Labour and Employment (later Labour and Industry), and in 1947 he was elected by his colleagues as Deputy Premier.

In 1948, the Industrial Groups associated with the Catholic Movement of B. A. Santamaria were introduced into Queensland to combat the influence of the Communist Party of Australia in the trade unions.

The Industrial Groups (whose members were known as Groupers) were supported by 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.

When conflict with the Groupers precipitated a national split in the ALP, leading to the formation of the breakaway Democratic Labor Party (DLP), the national organisation of the AWU swung its support behind ALP leader Dr H. V. Evatt and disbanded the Groups.

This would later deprive Gair of a potential source of support within the party organisation.

In 1950 he also became Treasurer.

Gair had not previously held office in a trade union.

Many Labor parliamentarians in Queensland in particular were closely aligned with the Australian Workers' Union (AWU).

Premier Edward Hanlon was the first in a succession of Queensland premiers not to be linked with the AWU, and this fact helped bring about a reduction in the union's political influence.

He 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.

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

Under Gair's premiership, reforms were carried out in worker's compensation, sick leave, and annual leave.

Long-service leave was also introduced, while the government's price controls enabled workers in Queensland to enjoy the highest real wages (adjusted for prices) in Australia.

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.

In July of that year, members of the AWU executive met Gair.

According to an account they gave later, Gair promised them an inquiry, although Gair denied ever having promised any such thing.

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 Gair defeated his motion in parliament.

In February 1956, Ian Wood, a Liberal Party Senator for Queensland, alleged that the government had demanded payments from pastoralists in order to ensure the extension of pastoral leases, and that these payments had been diverted to Labor Party funds.

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

Foley was acquitted of the specific charges laid against him, but was found by the Royal Commission's report to be responsible for the improper solicitation of party donations, for which he was dismissed from cabinet and expelled from the Labor Party.

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

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

Creighton was summoned to appear before the Bar of Parliament to explain his actions but was later dismissed by cabinet.

Gair easily won the elections of May 1956.

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

In 1974 he was appointed Australian Ambassador to Ireland by the Whitlam government, which caused his expulsion from the DLP.

Gair was born in Rockhampton to John Alexander and Catherine Mary Gair, a Scottish father and an Irish mother, and raised a Catholic.