Ted Needham

Edward Needham (30 September 1874 – 26 October 1956) was an Australian politician. He was a long-serving member of the parliament for the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in both state and federal politics. He served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1907 to 1920 and 1923 to 1929, including as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1926 to 1929. He was also a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1904 to 1905 and from 1933 to 1953. He worked various jobs as a manual labourer prior to entering politics and was active in the labour movement.

Early life Needham was likely born on 30 September 1874 in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England, although 16 October 1870 has also been given as a possible birth date. He was the son of Margaret (née Fahy) and Patrick Needham; his parents were Irish Catholics and his father was working as a labourer at the time of his birth.

Needham was educated at St Mary's Catholic School in Sunderland and at Seaham College in Seaham. He left school in 1886 at the age of twelve and began working as a trapper boy at a coal mine in Seaham. In 1888, he and his family moved to Scotland where he worked at a power loom weaving factory in Paisley and at various shipyards on Clydeside.

First years in Australia Needham immigrated to Australia in 1901 and settled in Fremantle, Western Australia, reportedly "entirely without friends or relatives anywhere on the Australian continent". He was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly at the 1904 state election, winning the seat of Fremantle for the ALP for the first time.

In his first years in parliament, Needham was a strong advocate for an independent Australian navy and the discontinuance of Australia's annual "naval subsidy" to the Royal Navy. In 1908 he introduced the private senator's bill that became the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1909, the first such bill to become law. His bill allowed the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration to implement "penalties against employers dismissing employees because of union activity, and against employees refusing to work for employers because of activity in employers' associations".

Personal life In 1908, Needham married Lilian Gosden, with whom he had two sons. Outside of politics he was active in various community organisations, including as a councillor of the Western Australian Industrial School for the Blind, president of the Civilian Maimed and Limbless Association of Western Australia, as a board member of Perth Hospital, and as vice-president of the Australian Advisory Council for the Physically Handicapped.

Needham died on 26 October 1956 at St John of God Hospital Subiaco, aged 82.