John Barrett

John George Barrett (17 December 1858 – 19 May 1928) was an Australian trade unionist, politician and temperance activist. He was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (1895–1897) and Senator for Victoria (1901–1903). A tinsmith by profession, he served terms as president and secretary of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council and join the federal Australian Labor Party (ALP) upon its creation in 1901. He was disendorsed prior to the 1903 federal election and made several further unsuccessful candidacies as an independent, advocating for prohibition of alcohol.

Early life Barrett was born on 17 December 1858 in Carlton, Victoria. He was the fourth child born to English immigrants Jane (née Elliott) and George Barrett. His father, a carpenter, was a member of the fledgling labour movement in Melbourne, supporting Graham Berry and serving as an officeholder in the Victorian Industrial Protection League.

Barrett attended St Mary's Anglican School in Hotham from 1863 to 1870, leaving to take up an apprenticeship as a tinsmith.

Politics Barrett was an unsuccessful candidate for the Victorian Legislative Assembly at the 1892 general election, running in the seat of Carlton South as a candidate of the Progressive Political League. His opponent William Ievers died in office in 1895 and he was elected to represent Carlton South at the resulting by-election, standing with the endorsement of the United Labor and Liberal Party and the Liberal Reform League. He lost his seat at the 1897 election and was defeated again at the 1900 election. In 1885, he remarried to Anne Duncan, his deceased wife's sister, with whom he had six children.

Barrett was widowed in 1925. He died in Melbourne on 19 May 1928, aged 69, of a pulmonary embolism following an operation on a gastric ulcer.