Former
Speakers

Maurice Blackburn
1880-1944
Speaker: 1933-1934
Legislative Assembly: 1914-1917, 1925-1934

Maurice Blackburn was Speaker for less than one year in 1933-34 and, although he was twice a member of the Legislative Assembly for a total period of about twelve years, it could be argued that the most important part of his work was outside parliament. He was born at Inglewood, Victoria, and was taken to Melbourne by his mother when his father died in 1887. After finishing school, Blackburn worked as an office boy in a legal firm, and later studied at the University of Melbourne. He was admitted to the Bar in 1910.

He was involved in the anti-sweating movement, and in about 1908 joined the Labor Party. In 1914 he contested and won the Legislative Assembly seat of Essendon for the Labor Party, but was defeated in the 1917 election due largely to his strong anti-war and anti-conscription stand. In 1914 he married Doris Amelia Hordern who had been the campaign secretary of Vida Goldstein, the first woman to stand for election to federal parliament, and was herself a leading pacifist. 

Blackburn was both prominent and popular in the post-war Labor Party, and in 1925 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Fitzroy. He held the seat until 1927, when he won the new seat of Clifton Hill. During this period in parliament he was active in opposing the repressive economic measures proposed during the 1930s depression. In 1933, when Labor lost office, he was elected Speaker, but resigned from the Legislative Assembly in 1934 in order to contest the Federal seat of Bourke.

Although he won Bourke and held it until 1943 his relations with the Labor Party and later the Labor government were chequered. His concern with international socialism and his opposition to conscription frequently caused him to take positions opposed to Labor policy, and in 1937 he was expelled over his membership of the Movement Against War and Fascism.

He was re-admitted to the Party in 1937, but expelled again for his association with the Australia-Soviet Friendship League. After his second expulsion he did not re-join the Labor party, although the ruling banning the Australia-Soviet Friendship League was reversed, and in 1943 he lost his seat to the official Labor candidate.

He died at Prahran, and was survived by his wife and three children.