Alexander John McLachlan (2 November 1872 – 28 May 1956) was an Australian politician.

McLachlan was born in Naracoorte, South Australia and educated at Hamilton

Hamilton, Victoria

Hamilton is a city in western Victoria, Australia. It is located at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway...

 Academy, and Mount Gambier

Mount Gambier, South Australia

Mount Gambier is the largest regional city in South Australia located approximately 450 kilometres south of the capital Adelaide and just 17 kilometres from the Victorian border....

 High School. He was an articled clerk in Mount Gambier and completed the Final Certificate in Law at the University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide

The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...

 in 1895. He was in partnership with Charles Kingston

Charles Kingston

Charles Cameron Kingston, Australian politician, was an early liberal Premier of South Australia serving from 1893 to 1899 with the support of Labor led by John McPherson from 1893 and Lee Batchelor from 1897 in the House of Assembly, winning the 1893, 1896, and 1899 state elections against the...

 from 1897 to 1905. In 1898 he married Cecia Antoinette Billiet. He was a director of the Hume Pipe Co. (Aust) Ltd from its foundation in 1920.

Political career

McLachlan ran unsuccessfully for election for the seat of Victoria in 1896 and for Adelaide

Electoral district of Adelaide

Adelaide is an electorate for the South Australian House of Assembly which includes Adelaide's central business district and suburbs in the inner north and inner north east...

 in 1912 in the South Australian House of Assembly

South Australian House of Assembly

The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...

. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Legislative Council

South Australian Legislative Council

The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly...

 in 1905, the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 seat of Adelaide

Division of Adelaide

The Division of Adelaide is an Australian Electoral Division in South Australia. The division was created in 1903 and is named for the city of Adelaide, South Australia's capital. The seat has always been based in the inner suburbs of Adelaide...

 in 1908

Adelaide by-election, 1908

A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Adelaide on 13 June 1908. This was triggered by the death of former Premier of South Australia and federal Protectionist Party MP Charles Kingston....

 and 1910

Australian federal election, 1910

Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 April 1910. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

 and for the Senate

Australian Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...

 in 1922

Australian federal election, 1922

Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority...

. In the 1925 elections

Australian federal election, 1925

Federal elections were held in Australia on 14 November 1925. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 22 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

, he was finally elected to the Senate as a Nationalist

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

, although he in fact filled a casual vacancy

Casual vacancy

In the Parliament of Australia, a casual vacancy is caused when a member of either house :* dies* resigns mid-term * is expelled from Parliament and their seat is declared vacant, or...

 in January 1926, prior to the commencement of his term in July. He was an honorary minister in the Bruce ministry

Second Bruce Ministry

The Second Bruce Ministry was the eighteenth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 14 November 1925 to 29 November 1928.Nationalist Party of Australia–Australian Country Party Coalition...

 from July 1926, often acting for absent ministers. He represented Australia at the meeting of the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

 in 1928 and signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact

Kellogg-Briand Pact

The Kellogg–Briand Pact was an agreement signed on August 27, 1928, by the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Weimar Germany and a number of other countries.The pact renounced war , prohibiting the use of war...

. He was Vice-President of the Executive Council

Vice-President of the Executive Council

The Vice-President of the Federal Executive Council is a position in Australian federal governments, whose holder acts as presiding officer of the Federal Executive Council in the absence of the Governor-General....

 from 1932 to 1934 in the Lyons government

First Lyons Ministry

The First Lyons Ministry was the twenty-first Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 6 January 1932 to 12 October 1934.United Australia Party*Rt Hon Joseph Lyons, MP: Prime Minister, Treasurer...

 and Minister in charge of Development and Scientific and Industrial Research

Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (Australia)

The current Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research is Kim Carr, appointed on 3 December 2007. He administers his portfolio through the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.-List of Ministers for Industry :...

 (responsible for the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation is the national government body for scientific research in Australia...

) from 1932 to 1937. From 1934 to 1938, he was Postmaster-General

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Australia)

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is currently Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy. He replaced Senator the Hon Helen Coonan on 3 December 2007.-Portfolio:...

 and issued many licences for commercial radio stations.

McLachlan became an outspoken advocate of military prepareness and supported sanctions against Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in response to its invasion of Ethiopia

Second Italo-Abyssinian War

The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...

, antagonising cabinet

Cabinet of Australia

The Cabinet of Australia is the council of senior ministers of the Crown, responsible to parliament. The Cabinet is appointed by the Governor-General, on the advice of the Prime Minister the Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, and serves at the former's pleasure. The strictly private...

. He also pressed Lyons over his unwillingness to proclaim the National Health and Pensions Insurance Bill of 1938. On 3 November 1938, McLachlan was questioned in parliament over the letting of a contract by the Postmaster-General's Department

Postmaster-General's Department

The Postmaster-General's Department was created at Federation in 1901 to control all postal services within Australia. Its minister was the Postmaster-General. In mid-1975 it was disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission and the Australian Postal Commission...

 to the Hume Pipe Co. Lyons lukewarm defence caused McLachlan to resign as Postmaster-General the same day. He remained on the backbench until the expiry of his Senate term in June 1944, having failed to get party pre-selection for the 1943 election

Australian federal election, 1943

Federal elections were held in Australia on 21 August 1943. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia John Curtin easily defeated the opposition Country Party led...

.

McLachlan died at the Mercy Hospital, East Melbourne

East Melbourne, Victoria

East Melbourne is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, adjacent to Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne. At the 2006 Census, East Melbourne had a population of 4,330....

, childless and having survived his wife who had died in 1941.