Charles Morgan (Australian politician)

Charles Morgan
Member of the Australian Parliament for Reid
In office 21 September 1940 – 28 September 1946
Preceded by	Joe Gander
Succeeded by	Jack Lang
In office 10 December 1949 – 22 November 1958
Preceded by	Jack Lang
Succeeded by	Tom Uren
Personal details
Born	(1897-01-27)27 January 1897 Woonona, New South Wales
Died	27 November 1967(1967-11-27) (aged 70)
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Labor (1940–58) Independent (1958)
Relations	Kevin Morgan (son)
Occupation	Solicitor

Charles Albert Aaron Morgan (27 January 1897 – 27 November 1967) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1940 to 1946 and from 1949 to 1958, representing the New South Wales seat of Reid. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), although after being defeated for preselection before the 1958 federal election he unsuccessfully recontested his seat as an independent.

Early life

Morgan was born on 27 January 1897 in Woonona, New South Wales. He grew up on the South Coast and qualified as a solicitor, establishing a practice in Wollongong and serving as a legal adviser to the Southern Miners' Federation. After seven years in Wollongong he moved to Sydney.

Politics

Morgan first stood for parliament at the 1925 election, running unsuccessfully against incumbent Nationalist MP and former cabinet minister Austin Chapman. Following Chapman's death, he also stood unsuccessfully at the 1926 Eden-Monaro by-election.

Morgan was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1940 federal election, defeating the incumbent Lang Labor MP Joe Gander. He was defeated by Jack Lang at the 1946 election, but reclaimed Reid at the 1949 election after Lang opted to contest a different seat.

In December 1957, Morgan was defeated for ALP preselection by Tom Uren, losing by 226 votes to 164. He and his supporters rejected the outcome of the ballot and unsuccessfully sought the intervention of the ALP's disputes committee. On 31 October 1958, Morgan nominated as an independent candidate in Reid at the 1958 federal election, standing in opposition to Uren. He identified in his campaign announcement as a "locally endorsed Australian Labor candidate" and touted his anti-communism, promising to "oppose and resist the influence of those disruptive and extremist elements who have infiltrated into Labor branches".

Morgan was defeated by Uren at the election, polling in third place with 21% of the first-preference vote. After the election, eighteen of his supporters were expelled from the ALP for assisting his campaign.

Fitzpatrick-Browne case

Main article: Browne–Fitzpatrick privilege case, 1955

In 1955, Morgan complained to the House of Representatives that his integrity and ability to perform his parliamentary duties were inhibited by claims made in the Bankstown Observer, a free newspaper circulated in his electorate. The matter was referred to the Committee of Privileges, and the proprietor of the newspaper, Raymond Fitzpatrick, and its editor, Frank Browne, were called before the Bar of the House. After hearing statements from both men, the House sentenced them to 90 days jail.

Personal life

Morgan died on 27 November 1967.

Morgan's son Kevin Morgan served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1953 to 1956, during his father's term as a federal MP.