Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch)


The Australian Labor Party , commonly known as Queensland Labor, is the state branch of the Australian Labor Party in Queensland.

History

Trade unionists in Queensland had begun attempting to secure parliamentary representation as early as the mid-1880s. William McNaughton Galloway, the president of the Seamen's Union, mounted an unsuccessful campaign as an independent in an 1886 by-election. A Workers' Political Reform Association was founded to nominate candidates for the 1888 election, at which the Brisbane Trades and Labor Council endorsed six candidates. Thomas Glassey won the seat of Bundamba at that election, becoming the first self-identified "labor" MP in Queensland. The Queensland Provincial Council of the Australian Labor Federation was formed in 1889 in an attempt to unite Labor campaign efforts. Tommy Ryan won the seat of Barcoo for the labour movement-run People's Parliamentary Association in 1892, and the Labor Party was formally established in Queensland following the first Labor-in-Politics Convention later that year.
The Queensland branch subsequently formed the first Labor government in Australia, albeit briefly, when Anderson Dawson took office for a week in 1899 after a falling out between the non-Labor forces.
Since 1989 when the party came back to power after 32 years in Opposition all its leaders have become Premiers despite two spells in Opposition in 1996-98 and 2012-2015.

Parliamentary leaders

The following figures have served as parliamentary leader of the Queensland state Labor Party: