page_title: T. J. Ryan
section_title: Queensland politician
hierarchical_section_title: T. J. Ryan / Queensland politician
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue of Thomas J. Ryan, politician
context_page_description: Thomas Joseph Ryan KC was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Queensland from 1915 to 1919, as leader of the state Labor Party. He resigned to enter federal politics, sitting in the House of Representatives for the federal Labor Party from 1919 until his premature death less than two years later.
  Ryan was born in Port Fairy, Victoria, to Irish immigrant parents. He studied arts and law at the University of Melbourne, and for several years worked as a schoolteacher at various private schools around Australia. He eventually settled in Queensland and entered the legal profession, working as a barrister in Brisbane. Ryan was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1909, and became leader of the Labor Party in 1912. He led the party to victory at the 1915 state election, the first time it had secured majority government in Queensland.
  As premier, Ryan led a reforming government that implemented many of the planks in the Labor platform, including the expansion of workers' rights, the implementation of price controls, and the establishment of new state-owned enterprises.
context_section_description: He was afterwards a candidate for the federal seat of Capricornia and the state seat of Rockhampton North, but was defeated on both occasions. In October 1909 he was elected as Labor member for Barcoo in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, retained the seat for 10 years, and after the 1912 election was elected leader of the Labour party on the resignation of David Bowman.
  The Ryan government was the first majority Australian Labor Party government of Queensland as a result of the 1915 election. Some of the eight members of his Cabinet had connections with the early ALP of the 1880s and the Shearer's Strike. His government would provide the example which would see Labor in power in Queensland almost continuously until 1957. Major reform of Labor laws and agricultural policy were part of the Ryan legacy. At the election in May 1915, Labour came in with a large majority and Ryan became premier, chief secretary, and Attorney-General, and an era of industrial legislation and state enterprise began. Among the measures passed were the industrial arbitration act, labour exchanges act, workers' compensation act, inspection of machinery and scaffolding act, factories and shops amendment act, and workers' compensation amendment act. This was one side of the Ryan government's activities but where it particularly broke fresh ground was the entrance of the state into trading activities. Stations were purchased and run as going concerns, and many retail butchers' shops were opened in Brisbane and other parts of Queensland. Railway refreshment rooms were taken over, state hotels were built and purchased, a produce agency was established, coal mines were acquired, iron and steel works were opened, and a state insurance department was established. In addition, Cane price boards were set up, providing fair returns for growers and fair wages for sugar workers. Women were given the right to stand for parliament, industrial reforms were carried out which gave workers a "new deal," and a chain of butchers' shops was established which sold meat cheaper than elsewhere and proved to be very popular.
  Ryan showed good generalship at the 1918 election and his party was again returned with a large majority. The defection of Prime Minister Billy Hughes and several others—including New South Wales Premier William Holman—to the non-Labor side left Ryan as the head of the only Labor government at any level in Australia.  As such, he was instrumental in leading the fight against conscription in the plebiscites launched by Hughes in 1916 and 1917. Friction between Hughes and Ryan almost led to violence in November 1917 when the Australian federal government conducted a raid on the Government Printing Office in Brisbane, with the aim of confiscating copies of Hansard that covered debates in the Queensland Parliament where anti-conscription sentiments had been aired. On 29 November 1917, Prime Minister Billy Hughes travelled to Warwick, southern Queensland, to recruit support for the 1917 Australian conscription referendum. An egg was thrown resulting in the formation of the Australian Federal Police.
caption: Statue of Thomas J. Ryan in Queens Gardens, Brisbane
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