Tom Tunnecliffe

Thomas Tunnecliffe (13 July 1869 – 2 February 1948) was an Australian politician. Representing the Australian Labor Party, he was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the electorates of West Melbourne (1903–1904), Eaglehawk (1907–1920) and Collingwood (1921–1947).

Tunnecliffe was a bootmaker by trade, and became president of the Victorian Operative Bootmakers' Union in the 1880s. He was heavily involved in a number of radical political organisations around the turn of the century, including the Victorian Socialist League. He also served as president of the Victorian Trades Hall Council and the Eight Hours Committee. In 1903, representing the Labor Party, he won a by-election for the Legislative Assembly seat of West Melbourne. However, the electorate was abolished six months later following a redistribution, and Tunnecliffe did not return to the Victorian parliament until 1907, when he won the seat of Eaglehawk in the Bendigo region. After his defeat in 1920 by the Country Party candidate, Albert Dunstan, Tunnecliffe went back to Melbourne and was elected to the Assembly in 1921 as the member for Collingwood, a seat he held for the next 26 years.

Following the 1937 state election, Tunnecliffe was succeeded as leader of the Labor Party in Victoria by John Cain, Snr. Tunnecliffe was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1937 to 1940, and continued as the member for Collingwood until July 1947, when he resigned due to ill-health. He died six months later.