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Speaker 1 July 1910 to 23 April 1913; 8 October 1914 to 26 March 1917
Australian Labor Party
Charles McDonald (1860-1925) was one of the early leaders of the movement which led to the establishment of the ALP. As Speaker he was noted for his deep study of parliamentary practice and for his even-handedness in the chair.1
McDonald was born in North Melbourne, the son of a confectioner. His family moved often and he was living in Mudgee, NSW, when he left school. He was apprenticed as a printer but later switched trades, becoming a watchmaker. In 1888 he moved to Charters Towers in Queensland and established his own business. In 1892 he married Mary Ann Tregear, with whom he had one daughter.
In Charters Towers McDonald became involved with the labour movement, energetically organising local goldminers and shop-assistants into trade unions. In 1890 he was elected as the first president of the Australian Labor Federation and played a leading role in the formation of the ALP. He organised support for strikers during the shearers’ strike in 1891 and was known as ‘Fighting Charlie’. In 1893 he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly for the seat of Flinders, and gained a reputation for his knowledge of standing orders.
Despite his initial opposition to Federation, at the first federal election in 1901 McDonald successfully stood for the seat of Kennedy, holding the seat continuously until his death in 1925. In one campaign he reportedly rode 5,000 kilometres by bicycle on rough outback roads.
On the first day of the new Parliament in 1901 McDonald complained of the lack of standing orders for the House. He was Chairman of Committees (1906-10) and became Labor’s first Speaker when Andrew Fisher formed the first Labor majority government in July 1910. A noted republican, he did not wear the traditional Speaker’s wig and gown and had the ceremonial mace removed from the table of the House of Representatives. When Labor was narrowly defeated in the 1913 election the Liberal Government made an offer to McDonald to continue in the position but he declined.
Following Labor’s victory in the 1914 double dissolution election McDonald became Speaker again, serving until March 1917. During the parliamentary term Labor split over the introduction of conscription. As an anti-conscriptionist McDonald remained with Labor but served as Speaker under Labor, National Labour, and Nationalist governments.
After the 1917 election he served on the back bench for the remainder of his life. In visibly declining health for many years, McDonald died in Melbourne on 13 November 1925. He was given a state funeral and was survived by his wife and daughter.
Josephine Margaret Muntz-Adams
Josephine Muntz-Adams (1862-1949) was born near Kyneton in Victoria. In 1882 she enrolled at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School attending classes with GF Folingsby, alongside Jane Sutherland, May Vale and Arthur Streeton. Inspired by the French Impressionists, in 1890 Muntz-Adams departed for Paris where she attended the Académie Colarossi and worked in the studios of renowned French artists Julien and Delacroix. Throughout this period, her works were twice exhibited at the Paris Salon. She then relocated to England to study at Herkomer’s Art School in Hertfordshire. On returning to Melbourne in 1896, she devoted herself to developing her portraiture technique, exhibiting her works at the Victorian Artists’ Society and Kozminsky’s Gallery. In 1898, her portrait of Premier of Victoria Duncan Gillies won a gold medal for portraiture at the Greater Britain Exhibition in London. By 1907, Muntz-Adams was obtaining commissions for high profile figures. She travelled overseas in 1907 but returned to Australia, dividing her time between Melbourne and Brisbane. Her final exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne, was opened by Sir Keith Murdoch and received much acclaim. Her works are represented in major public galleries across Australia.2
Charles McDonald
by Josephine Margaret Muntz-Adams
1916
Oil on canvas
227.7 x 135.4 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. Information in this biography has been taken from the following: B Stevenson, ‘McDonald, Charles (1860–1925)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2021; ‘Kennedy Seat–A painful development – Death of Mr Charles M’Donald’, The Queenslander, 21 November 1925, p. 16. Websites accessed 30 August 2021.
2. ‘Muntz-Adams, Josephine’, 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. 706; ‘Woman artist dead at 87’, The Courier-Mail, 22 November 1949, p. 5; ‘A Queensland Artist’, The Brisbane Courier, 8 December 1900, p. 11; W Moore, ‘Art and Artists’, The Brisbane, 8 November 1930, p. 18. Websites accessed 15 April 2021.