Vincent Bernard Lesina

Vincent Bernard Joseph Lesina (1 November 1869 – 14 July 1955) was a journalist and member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

Biography Lesina was born in the goldfields of Araluen, New South Wales, to parents Alexander Lesina, who was of Italian/Swiss origin, and his wife Margaret (née McGrath), and was educated at St Benedict's school and orphanage in Sydney. in Sydney, and they had three sons. He died in Parramatta in 1955

Described as a "nervy, restless dark little man of passing good looks", Lesina was a speaker possessed of considerable wit, biting sarcasm and devastating invective, along with a capacity for detailed research and factual inventiveness. He advocated a White Australia policy and even "white Empire". He never rose to any prominence in the Labour Party and his only notable contribution to reform was the adoption of a policy to abolish of capital punishment at the Labor-in-Politics Convention in 1910, which was eventually enacted in 1922.

Lesina was a stickler for Labour policy and was twice censured by the party during his time in parliament for his refusal to surrender those principles. He was expelled from the :Labour Party in 1909 because of disagreements with Labour leader David Bowman about the liquor trade and certain aspects of nationalisation. Lesina retired from politics in 1912. An "utterly irreconcilable freelance", he was uncontrollable by party discipline.