Littleton Groom
Sir Littleton Ernest Groom KCMG KC was an Australian politician. He held ministerial office under four prime ministers between 1905 and 1925, and subsequently served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1926 to 1929.
Groom was the son of William Henry Groom, who had arrived in Australia as a convict but became a prominent public figure in the Colony of Queensland. He was a lawyer by profession, entering federal parliament at the 1901 Darling Downs by-election following his father's death. Groom was first appointed to cabinet by Alfred Deakin in 1905. Over the following two decades he served as Minister for Home Affairs, Attorney-General, External Affairs, Trade and Customs, Vice-President of the Executive Council, Works and Railways, and Attorney-General.
A political liberal and anti-socialist, Groom was initially affiliated with Deakin's Protectionists, who were later superseded by the Liberals and Nationalists. He came into conflict with Prime Minister Stanley Bruce during the 1920s, and as speaker in 1929 refused to use his casting vote to save the government on a confidence motion. He was expelled from the Nationalists and lost his seat at the resulting election, but was re-elected in 1931 as an independent. He joined the United Australia Party in 1933 and continued as a backbencher until his death in 1936.
Early life
Groom was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, third son of William Henry Groom and his wife Grace. Groom was educated at Toowoomba North State School, Toowoomba Grammar School, where he was dux of the school and captain of both the football and cricket teams, and Ormond College, University of Melbourne where he won the 1890 University Scholarship at the Final Honours Examination in Laws.He worked as a lawyer, Crown Prosecutor and acting judge. Groom married Jessie Bell in July 1894.
Politics
Groom won the first federal by-election in Australian history, as a Protectionist for the seat of Darling Downs, caused by the death of his father. Groom was a strong Australian nationalist, supporting an extension of the Commonwealth's powers, including its industrial relations powers. As a result, he supported the Watson government in 1904.Government minister
Groom was Minister of Home Affairs from July 1905 to October 1906 in the second Deakin Ministry and introduced legislation in 1906 to create a federal meteorological department and the creation of the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in 1916 was in large part a product of his attempt to create an Australian Department of Agriculture in 1906. In October 1906, Groom became Attorney General until the defeat of the Deakin government in November 1908. Groom passed legislation to defend the Harvester Judgment and successfully introduced legislation providing Commonwealth invalid and old age pensions.With the formation of the Fusion government in June 1909, Groom became Minister for External Affairs until the Fusion's defeat in the 1910 election.
He had carried legislation establishing the High Commission of Australia in London. After the 1910 election, he became a strong opponent of Labor and attacked its establishment of a government-owned Commonwealth Bank and its attempt to gain the power to control monopolies. He was Trade and Customs in the Cook Ministry from June 1913 to September 1914.
Groom was Vice-President of the Executive Council in Hughes's Nationalist government from November 1917 to March 1918 and Works and Railways from March 1918 to December 1921. He encouraged railway development and was involved in accelerating the construction of Canberra.
In December 1921 he became Attorney-General again. He was Minister for Trade and Customs and Minister for Health in May and June 1924, following Austin Chapman's resignation on grounds of ill health. Groom led the 1924 Australian delegation to the Fifth Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva and chaired a committee, which formulated a protocol to establish a system of international arbitration and later voted to support its protocol despite an instruction to abstain. Groom involved himself in attempts to deport "foreign" agitators, but due to his poor handling of these and other matters, he was obliged to resign in December 1925.
Speaker of the House
In return for his resignation, Groom was elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives and presided from January 1926 to 1929, when he helped oversee the move of federal Parliament from Melbourne to the newly constructed capital Canberra.His refusal to use his tiebreaking vote as speaker on a bill that would remove the Commonwealth from most of its involvement in conciliation and arbitration led to the collapse of the Bruce government, triggering the 1929 election. This was motivated partly by his views on the obligations of an independent speaker, but he also disliked the bill and he still resented his forced resignation in 1925.
Final years
The Nationalists expelled Groom from the party, forcing him to run for reelection as an independent. In a bitter campaign, Groom was eliminated on the first count, making him the first serving Speaker to lose his own seat at an election.Groom returned to his legal practice in Brisbane; he was re-elected in 1931 election as an Independent. He joined the United Australia Party, successor to the Nationalists, in August 1933. From 1932 to 1936 he was chairman of the Bankruptcy Legislation Committee and in earlier years he also acted on various royal commissions and select committees. He died in Canberra of cerebro-vascular disease. Groom was survived by his wife and one of their two daughters.
Other activities
Groom was joint author with Sir John Quick of the Judicial Power of the Commonwealth in 1904 and he was part author of various Queensland legal publications.A member of the General Synod of the Anglican Church, Groom was knighted in January 1924 for his services to politics. In 1984, his old seat of Darling Downs was renamed the Division of Groom in his honour. He is commemorated by a number of features in Toowoomba, including Groom Park.
Groom's elder brother, Henry Littleton Groom, was a long serving member of the Queensland Legislative Council.