Arthur Rae

Arthur Edward George Rae (14 March 1860 – 25 November 1943) was a New Zealand-born Australian trade unionist and politician. He was an influential figure in the early history of the labour movement and Australian Labor Party (ALP), including as a member of the colonial New South Wales Legislative Assembly (1891–1894) and as a Senator for New South Wales (1910–1914, 1929–1935).

Rae was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and was educated at Blenheim. He worked as a labourer and shearer after leaving school, joining the Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australasia. After moving to Australia in 1889 he became a union organiser in the Riverina and was briefly imprisoned for his activities. He was elected to parliament at the 1891 New South Wales general election as one of the first Labor MPs, attracting attention for his socialist views. Defeated after a single term, Rae subsequently helped establish the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) and the labour newspaper The Australian Worker. He served terms as president and general secretary of the AWU and was a long-serving member of the ALP state executive.

Rae was elected to the Senate at the 1910 federal election as one of the first three ALP senators in New South Wales. He was defeated in 1914 but continued to play a major role in the ALP as a leader of its anti-conscription faction during the 1916 party split. Rae allied himself with the One Big Union and helped establish the Industrial Socialist Labor Party in 1919, leaving the AWU and ALP. He later became associated with Jack Lang and was readmitted to the ALP in 1927. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1929 and sat as a Lang Labor senator after the 1931 party split, losing his seat again at the 1934 election.

Early life Rae was born on 14 March 1860 in Christchurch, New Zealand. He was the son of Ann Elizabeth and Charles Joseph Rae. His father, a painter and glazier by profession, later became a trade union official and was a leader of a major railway strike in 1890.

Rae attended the public school at Blenheim. He left school at the age of 16 and worked as a farm and station hand and as a shearer. He also had some training as a mechanic and was a member of New Zealand's voluntary military force. He joined the New Zealand division of the Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australasia (ASU) in 1886. He was one of the first MPs elected by the Labor Electoral League, the predecessor of the modern Australian Labor Party (ALP). He was one of the first three ALP senators elected from New South Wales, along with Albert Gardiner and Allan McDougall.

In 1910, Rae introduced a resolution into the Senate calling on the British parliament to enact women's suffrage, which by then had been granted in all Australian jurisdictions. His resolution passed both the Senate and the House and was forwarded to London during debate on the Conciliation Bills; he also sent copies of the parliamentary debate to prominent overseas suffragists. Rae had a long-standing interest in women's rights, dating back to the 1890s when he developed a friendship with Rose Scott. He advocated for women's suffrage within the labour movement and greater women's involvement within the movement in general, as part of "a minority of socialists at that time who saw the unionisation of women workers, not just as a means of obtaining wage justice, but as a vehicle for the establishment of an independent women's movement".

Rae's term in the Senate was cut short by a double dissolution in 1914 and he was defeated at the resulting 1914 election, with his term ending on 5 September 1914. Rae stated the following year that the "present political methods of the ALP were misleading and would do nothing to emancipate workers from wage slavery". He made a single unsuccessful candidacy for the new party, standing for the Senate at the 1922 election.

In 1934, Rae was leader of protests against the Lyons government's attempts to exclude Czech socialist writer Egon Kisch from Australia. He was threatened with arrest when he attempted to board Kisch's ship, but was ultimately allowed to proceed by police.

Personal life Rae married Annie Fryer in New Zealand in 1892. Three of sons served with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during World War I, with William killed in action in August 1918 and Donald dying while on active duty in January 1919.

Outside of his political activities, Rae took up a selection near Coolamon, New South Wales, where he farmed wheat. He later bought a fruitgrowing property at Glenorie on the outskirts of Sydney in 1901, before retiring to Marrickville in 1918. He was widowed in 1929 and died at Liverpool Hospital on 25 November 1943, aged 83. He was interred at Rookwood Cemetery.