James Long

James Joseph Long (1870 – 23 December 1932) was an Australian politician. He was a Senator for Tasmania from 1910 to 1918, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He resigned from the Senate following a royal commission's finding that he had accepted bribes, although he was never charged with a criminal offence. Long previously served in the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1903 to 1910 and was briefly a state government minister. He was a miner and trade union official before entering parliament.

Early life Long was born in 1870 in Hamilton-on-Forth, Tasmania. He was the son of Maria (née Hannan) and Patrick Long; his father was a farmer.

Long received a primary school education, moving to Tasmania's West Coast at a young age. He initially worked as a prospector and later as a miner, including for the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company. He became active in the labour movement as a member of the Amalgamated Miners' Association and was an officeholder in its Mount Lyell branch. winning the seat of Lyell as one of the first Labor MPs in Tasmania.

Shaw died later in 1916 and allegations were soon made of financial improprieties in relation to the sale, with a significant sum of cash unaccounted for. In 1918, a royal commission into defence administration during World War I found that Long had accepted a bribe of £2,400 for his role in facilitating the sale. Long admitted only to receiving £1,290 , which he stated were for "services rendered", and claimed that other payments from Shaw were winnings from horse racing.

Long resigned from the Senate on 20 December 1918, stating that the royal commission's findings "though unsupported by evidence, have been accepted with as little hesitation by the members of my own party as by those on the Government side of the House". He died at his home in Prahran on 23 December 1932.