Daglish Ministry

rdf:langString Daglish Ministry

rdf:langString The Daglish Ministry was the 7th Ministry of the Government of Western Australia and was led by Labor Premier Henry Daglish. It succeeded the James Ministry on 10 August 1904 after the 1904 election boosted Labor's seat count from 8 to 22 in the 50-seat Legislative Assembly. As such it was a minority government and relied on the support of four independents. The resulting Ministry was interesting for various reasons. It was the first Labor Ministry in Western Australia and one of the first in Australia. Unlike all previous Ministries, it consisted almost entirely of men who had immigrated to Western Australia in the previous two decades. Some hurdles needed to be overcome. A constitutional requirement that the Ministry include at least one member of the Legislative Council was met when John Drew, an Independent member of that chamber, agreed to serve. Additionally, as Labor contained no lawyers within its ranks, the role of Attorney-General as chief law officer of the State lapsed, and Robert Hastie was named Minister for Justice instead. Just over a year later, the Government lost support on the floor of the house and fell on a vote of no confidence. On 25 August 1905, it was followed by the Rason Ministry led by Hector Rason, a former Minister in the James Ministry.