List of longest-serving members of the Australian House of Representatives

This is a List of Fathers of the Australian House of Representatives.

The Father of the 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....

is an informal title that carries no parliamentary responsibilities. It is held by the member who has served longer, continuously, than any other currently serving member. Where two or more members have equal lengths of continuous service, more than any other currently serving members, they are known as the joint Fathers of the House of Representatives. Joint Fathers are shown in small type in the following list.

The only Father of the House of Representatives with broken service but whose latter period of continuous service was sufficiently long to qualify was Eddie Ward

Eddie Ward

Edward John "Eddie" Ward , Australian politician, was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for 32 years from 1931 until his death....

.

The first House of Representatives was elected in March 1901. The election was held on Friday 29 March in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

and Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, and on Saturday 30 March in the other states. Despite that slight variation in the election date, all the members elected to the First Parliament were considered to have had equal seniority. It follows that there could not be a "longest-serving member" until only one member from the First Parliament was still in the House. That occurred on 8 April 1935 with the death of David Watkins

David Watkins (Australian politician)

David Watkins was an Australian politician and Member of the Australian House of Representatives for Newcastle from 1901 until his death in 1935....

, leaving Billy Hughes

Billy Hughes

William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....

as the inaugural Father of the House of Representatives. Hughes was also the inaugural Father of the Parliament

Father of the Australian Parliament

This is a list of Fathers of the Australian Parliament.The Father of the Parliament is the more senior of the Father of the Senate and the Father of the House of Representatives...

from 1938.

Since that date the Fathers and joint Fathers of the House of Representatives have been:

From	To	Member	Continuous term started	Status
9 April 1935	28 October 1952	Billy Hughes Billy Hughes William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....	30 March 1901	Father
29 October 1952	9 December 1961	Sir Earle Page Earle Page Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH was the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history, with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:...	13 December 1919 Australian federal election, 1919 Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1919. 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 defeated the opposition Australian...	Father
10 December 1961	31 July 1963	Eddie Ward Eddie Ward Edward John "Eddie" Ward , Australian politician, was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for 32 years from 1931 until his death....	6 February 1932	Father
1 August 1963	16 February 1966	Joseph Clark Joe Clark (Australian politician) Joseph "Joe" James Clark, CBE was an Australian politician, serving in the Australian House of Representatives as the Member for Darling from 15 September 1934 to 29 September 1969, a term of making him one of the longest-serving members of the House of Representatives.Clark's father was Joseph... John McEwen John McEwen Sir John "Black Jack" McEwen, GCMG, CH , was an Australian politician and the 18th Prime Minister of Australia... Sir Robert Menzies Robert Menzies Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....	15 September 1934 Australian federal election, 1934 Federal elections were held in Australia on 15 September 1934. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent United Australia Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Joseph Lyons with coalition partner the Country Party led...	Joint Fathers
17 February 1966	29 September 1969	Joseph Clark John McEwen	15 September 1934	Joint Fathers
30 September 1969	1 February 1971	John McEwen John McEwen Sir John "Black Jack" McEwen, GCMG, CH , was an Australian politician and the 18th Prime Minister of Australia...	15 September 1934 Australian federal election, 1934 Federal elections were held in Australia on 15 September 1934. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent United Australia Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Joseph Lyons with coalition partner the Country Party led...	Father
2 February 1971	2 November 1972	Arthur Calwell Arthur Calwell Arthur Augustus Calwell Australian politician, was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for 32 years from 1940 to 1972, Immigration Minister in the government of Ben Chifley from 1945 to 1949 and Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1960 to 1967.-Early life:Calwell was born in...	21 September 1940 Australian federal election, 1940 Federal elections were held in Australia on 21 September 1940. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...	Father
3 November 1972	11 November 1975	Fred Daly	21 August 1943 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...	Father
12 November 1975	10 November 1977	Kim Beazley (senior) Kim Edward Beazley Kim Edward Beazley, AO , known as Kim Beazley during his career, Australian politician, was Minister for Education in the government of Gough Whitlam and a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives for 32 years, from 1945 to 1977.Beazley, the youngest of seven children, was born in...	18 August 1945	Father
11 November 1977	19 September 1980	Clyde Cameron Clyde Cameron Clyde Robert Cameron, AO , Australian politician, was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for 31 years from 1949 to 1980, a Cabinet minister in the Whitlam government and a leading figure in the Australian labour movement for forty years.-Biography:Cameron was born in Murray Bridge,... Sir William McMahon William McMahon Sir William "Billy" McMahon, GCMG, CH , was an Australian Liberal politician and the 20th Prime Minister of Australia...	10 December 1949 Australian federal election, 1949 Federal elections were held in Australia on 10 December 1949. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives, and 42 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, where the single transferable vote was introduced...	Joint Fathers
20 September 1980	4 January 1982	Sir William McMahon William McMahon Sir William "Billy" McMahon, GCMG, CH , was an Australian Liberal politician and the 20th Prime Minister of Australia...	10 December 1949	Father
5 January 1982	31 March 1983	Malcolm Fraser Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role... Sir James Killen James Killen Sir Denis James "Jim" Killen, AC, KCMG , was an Australian politician.-Education and early career:Killen was born in Dalby, Queensland and educated at Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland, where he graduated in law... Sir Billy Snedden Billy Snedden Sir Billy Mackie Snedden, KCMG, QC was an Australian politician representing the Liberal Party. He was Leader of the Opposition at the 1974 federal election, failing to defeat the Labor incumbent Gough Whitlam.-Early life:...	10 December 1955 Australian federal election, 1955 Federal elections were held in Australia on 10 December 1955. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives, and 30 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies with coalition partner the Country Party...	Joint Fathers
1 April 1983	21 April 1983	Sir James Killen Sir Billy Snedden	10 December 1955	Joint Fathers
22 April 1983	15 August 1983	Sir James Killen James Killen Sir Denis James "Jim" Killen, AC, KCMG , was an Australian politician.-Education and early career:Killen was born in Dalby, Queensland and educated at Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland, where he graduated in law...	10 December 1955 Australian federal election, 1955 Federal elections were held in Australia on 10 December 1955. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives, and 30 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies with coalition partner the Country Party...	Father
16 August 1983	18 January 1984	Doug Anthony Doug Anthony John Douglas Anthony, AC, CH , is a former Australian politician. He was leader of the National Party from 1971 to 1984, and Deputy Prime Minister from 1971 to 1972 and again from 1975 to 1983.-Early life:...	14 September 1957	Father
19 January 1984	19 February 1990	Tom Uren Tom Uren Thomas Uren, AO was a Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party. He helped establish the heritage and conservation movement in Australia and, in particular, worked to preserve the heritage of inner Sydney.-Early life:...	22 November 1958 Australian federal election, 1958 Federal elections were held in Australia on 22 November 1958. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives, and 32 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election...	Father
20 February 1990	31 August 1998	Ian Sinclair Ian Sinclair Ian McCahon Sinclair AC , is an Australian politician and former leader of the National Party of Australia.Sinclair was born in Sydney, the son of a suburban accountant. He was educated at Knox Grammar School and at the University of Sydney, where he graduated in arts and law...	30 November 1963	Father
1 September 1998	Incumbent	Philip Ruddock Philip Ruddock Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...	22 September 1973	Father

See also