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President, 12 June 1951 to 7 September 1953
Liberal Party of Australia
Born in Oakbank, SA, in 1893, Edward Mattner (1893-1977) attended Oakbank and Adelaide high schools before beginning teacher-training at the University of Adelaide in 1914. Enlisting in the AIF in 1915, he served on the Western Front and was awarded an MM, a DCM and then an MC. After discharge, he bought a farm, Wybaleena, at Balhannah in SA, and married a nurse, Lorna May Prince.1
Active in the community, Mattner was a foundation member and later secretary and president of the Balhannah branch of the Agricultural Bureau of SA. With the outbreak of World War II, he again enlisted, serving in the Middle East and Papua, before he was discharged on medical grounds.
Mattner was a prominent member of the Onkaparinga district committee of the Liberal and Country League of SA, serving as its secretary and president. Selected to fill a casual vacancy in the Senate in 1944, he was defeated at the 1946 election but was returned to the Senate three years later. As a senator, Mattner was particularly concerned with issues relating to the armed forces and primary production.
Elected President in 1951, Mattner made a number of rulings about the conduct of proceedings, including that the Leader of the Opposition would have priority over all other non-government senators during Question Time.2 He maintained that in debate the President would have discretion to decide whether particular language was offensive and should be withdrawn, but denied a newspaper report alleging that he had compiled a list of banned expressions.3
Mattner’s presidency came to an end in 1953 when his successor Senator McMullin won the ballot by two votes. It was rumoured that Mattner lost support in the Liberal Party because of his close relationship with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Archie Cameron, and the strict control they exerted over Parliament House administration.
For the remainder of his time in the Senate after his presidency, Mattner advocated for improved conditions for service personnel and pursued an interest in foreign affairs, participating in delegations to New Guinea, Nigeria and South-East Asia. He crossed the floor several times, mostly in relation to primary production issues. He also argued that the Senate should be purely a house of review and debate and would function better as such if ministers were only appointed from the House of Representatives.4 Mattner left the Senate at the end of his term in 1968 and returned to Balhannah before retiring to nearby Woodside. He died in 1977 and was survived by his six children.
Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele CBE
South Australian artist Ivor Hele (1912-1993) was known for his exceptional draughtsmanship and talent for portraiture and figure compositions. He studied art in Adelaide and later in Europe and began exhibiting during his teenage years. By 1939, he had become a regular exhibitor with the Royal South Australian Society of Arts, highly regarded for his prize-winning portraits. In 1940, Hele enlisted in the Army and in 1941 was appointed as an official war artist. He would go on to become Australia’s longest serving and most prolific war artist, producing over 500 works. Although he also painted many landscapes, Hele was best known for his portraits, winning the SA Melrose Prize for Portraiture three times and the Archibald Prize five times, notably with his portrait of Prime Minister Robert Menzies. In 1969 he was made a CBE, and in 1982 was knighted for his services to art. Hele was a trustee to the board of what was then known as the National Gallery of SA 1956-69. His work is represented in all major Australian national, state and regional galleries.5
Edward William Mattner
by Ivor Henry Thomas Hele
1952
Oil on canvas
106 x 90.6 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collections
References
1. Unless otherwise noted, information sourced from G Gould, ‘Mattner, Edward William (1893–1977)’, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate Online Edition, Department of the Senate, Parliament of Australia, published first in hardcopy 2010; Parliamentary Library, ‘Mattner, the Hon. Edward William’, Parliamentary Handbook Online; F Bongiorno, ‘Mattner, Edward William (1893–1977)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2000. Websites accessed 7 June 2021.
2. E Mattner, ‘Questions without Notice’, Senate, Debates, 26 September 1951, p. 5.
3. See, for example, E Mattner, ‘Loan (Housing) Bill 1952: Second reading’, Senate, Debates, 23 October 1952, p. 3647; E Mattner, ‘The Parliament: Wheat‘, Senate, Debates, 21 May 1952, pp. 532–33.
4. E Mattner, ‘Appropriation Bill 1954–55’, Senate, Debates, 29 September 1954, p. 581–82.
5. ‘Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele CBE (1912–1993)’, Virtual War Memorial Australia; Ivor Hele 1912–1993‘, National Portrait Gallery; ‘Ivor Hele: the heroic figure’, Australian War Memorial; J Hylton, ‘Hele, Sir Ivor Henry (1912–1993)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2021; ‘Hele, (Sir) Ivor Henry Thomas’, A McCulloch, S McCulloch and E McCulloch Childs, eds, The New McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press, 2006, p. 509. Websites accessed 26 March 2021.