Hugh Mahon

The Honourable Hugh Mahon
Member of the Australian Parliament for Coolgardie
In office 29 March 1901 – 31 May 1913
Preceded by	New seat
Succeeded by	Division abolished
Member of the Australian Parliament for Kalgoorlie
In office 22 December 1913 – 5 May 1917
Preceded by	Charles Frazer
Succeeded by	Edward Heitmann
In office 13 December 1919 – 12 November 1920
Preceded by	Edward Heitmann
Succeeded by	George Foley
Personal details
Born	6 January 1857 Killurin, Ireland
Died	28 August 1931 (aged 74) Ringwood, Victoria
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Spouse(s)	Mary Alice L'Estrange
Occupation	Newspaper owner

Hugh Mahon (6 January 1857 – 28 August 1931) was an Irish-born Australian politician and a member of the first Commonwealth Parliament for the Australian Labor Party. He was the only Member of Parliament ever expelled from the Federal Parliament.

Mahon was born at Killurin, near Tullamore, King's County, Ireland and migrated with his family to the United States in 1867, where he learnt about printing. He returned to Ireland in about 1880 and was jailed in 1881 for political agitation along with Irish National Land League leaders including Charles Stewart Parnell, but was released due to ill-health. He migrated to Australia in 1882 to avoid re-arrest and worked for newspapers in Goulburn and Sydney, before acquiring a newspaper in Gosford. He married Mary Alice L'Estrange in 1888 and subsequently sold his newspaper to follow her back to her birthplace, Melbourne. In 1895, he moved to Coolgardie, Western Australia.^[1]

Political career

Group photograph of all Federal Labour^[2] Party MPs elected at the inaugural 1901 election, including Chris Watson, Andrew Fisher, Billy Hughes, Frank Tudor, and King O'Malley. Mahon is middle row standing fourth from left.

Mahon stood unsuccessfully for the state seat of North Coolgardie in 1897, but won the new federal seat of Coolgardie at the 1901 election for Labour. He was Postmaster-General in the Watson government in 1904 and Minister for Home Affairs in the Fisher government of 1908–09. In 1913, the seat of Coolgardie was abolished and partly replaced by Dampier, for which he stood unsuccessfully. He re-entered Parliament in the seat of Kalgoorlie; following the death of the incumbent, Charles Frazer, a by-election was called, but at the close of nominations on 22 December 1913 Mahon was the sole candidate and was declared elected unopposed.^[3] He became Minister for External Affairs in December 1914 until the Labor Party split in 1916.^[1]

Mahon lost his seat in 1917, but won it back in 1919. After the death in October 1920 of the Irish nationalist Terence McSwiney, who had been on hunger strike, Mahon attacked British policy in Ireland and the British Empire, referring to it as "this bloody and accursed despotism" at an open-air meeting in Melbourne on 7 November. Prime Minister Billy Hughes moved to expel him^[1] and on 12 November the House of Representatives passed a resolution that Mahon had made "seditious and disloyal utterances at a public meeting," and was "guilty of conduct unfitting him to remain a member of this House and inconsistent with the oath of allegiance which he has taken as a member of this House". Mahon became the only MP ever to be expelled from the Federal Parliament, since, under Section 8 of the Parliamentary Privileges Act, 1987,^[4] neither house of the Parliament now has the power to expel a member.

Mahon failed to win back his seat at the December 1920 Kalgoorlie by-election, suffering a 3.5 percent swing.^[5]

After a trip to Europe and Ireland, Mahon died in 1931 in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood, and was survived by his wife and four children.^[1]

References

1. Gibbney, H. J. "Mahon, Hugh (1857–1931)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 2007-08-12.
2. As noted further on in the article the spelling of "Labor" in "Australian Labor Party" was not adopted by the party until 1912.
3. Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia (29th ed). Commonwealth of Australia. 2002. p. 436. ISSN 0813-541X.
4. http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/pasteact/1/793/0/PA000120.htm
5. Australian Electoral Office (1983). Commonwealth By-elections 1901–1982. Commonwealth of Australia. pp. 31, 182. ISBN 0-644-02369-4.