William Foster

William Frederick Foster (29 August 1865 – 21 July 1936) was an Australian building contractor, businessman, politician and member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

Early life

William Foster was born in Brisbane to builder William Foster and Rebecca, née Harwood, who were English migrants.

He served as an executive member on numerous boards and committees. He was a member of the Master Builders' Association of New South Wales from 1914 to 1921, serving as vice-president in 1916-17 and president in 1918.

He was the sole examiner in carpentry and joinery for the Sydney Technical College (which later became TAFE NSW) in 1917.

In 1925, Foster's timber and joinery works in Redfern were destroyed by fire.

Political career

Following a successful career as a builder, Foster entered politics in 1920 at the age of 55. By this time he had built a reputation as a well-known builder and contractor.

He was also an advocate of housing reform, and as chairman of various committees had frequently reported to the government in that capacity.

Foster's opinion was that it would be more sensible to leave transport to private enterprise, and that the government's proposal to eliminate competition from private busses was "socialistic". He said the policy was unfair to bus drivers and conductors in the city, whose "only crime was that they were giving service to the public and earning an honest living".

He called attention to the growing congestion on the government-owned tramways and noted that Sydney's public transportation system was failing to cope despite costing millions of pounds. Foster remarked that it took 25 years of agitation to get the government rail transport agency to put down the half-mile of line from Bondi to North Bondi, and that his constituents in Woollahara had been asking in vain for 25 years for a line connecting them with the central station. He said that private sector bus operators, meanwhile, had stepped up to provide Woollahara the route they wanted, and that they were successful in doing so because busses were less expensive to operate.

Foster pointed to Underground Electric Railways Company of London managing director Lord Ashfield as "the greatest authority in the world on metropolitan transport" and often quoted from Ashfield's reports in parliamentary debates, which he said show that "the bus is nearly five times more effective on capital expenditure than trams, and about six and a half times more than the underground."

Foster travelled abroad and studied the transport systems in many different countries. He said that taxis had completely revolutionised transport in Paris, and that successful transit services in London were being provided to the city by private enterprise. He noticed that tramways outside Manchester were being torn up and replaced with asphalt roads. Foster viewed the public tramway system as obsolete, preferring busses and clearly defined railways.

He was the only member to cross the bench to oppose the bill.

Using his position as a member of the Legislative Assembly, he assisted the association by arranging meetings with ministers and senior parliamentary members, and by making speeches in Parliament in support of the building industry. Foster was assisted by Thomas Henley and the Master Builders' Association to prepare a response to the Industrial Arbitration Bill of 1925.

Amid the growth in popularity of flats in the 1920s, some Sydney councils proposed bans or restrictions on their development, arguing that the new multi-story buildings were obstructing views from existing neighbouring homes. Foster objected to a total prohibition, instead suggesting that the Institute of Architects and Master Builders' Association should each nominate a technical representative to advise councils, in an honorary capacity, on flat design.

Personal life

He married Ada Brees in 1893, with whom he had two sons.

Foster was a member of the Bourke Street Wesleyan Debating Society and vice president of the Centenary Hall Debating Society.

Although it was clear that he was in physical pain in the moments leading up to his speech, Foster felt so intensely about the issue that he felt it his duty to continue. He had a glass of brandy placed to the table beside him and occasionally took sips from it to give himself the strength to continue. On 23 July, members of Parliament left Parliament House to attend his funeral. The manager of a private taxi business offered dozens of taxi-cabs free of charge for his funeral procession as a mark of respect for Foster being "always prepared to take up with the government any just and reasonable claim put forward".

Legacy Foster Park and Foster Avenue, both in Double Bay, were posthumously named after Foster in 1937.