Jack Duggan (politician)

The Honourable
Jack Duggan
OAM
The Honourable Jack Duggan OAM
	Duggan in 1963.
16th Deputy Premier of Queensland
	In office; 16 March 1953 – 7 June 1957
Premier	Vince Gair
Preceded by	Tom Foley
Succeeded by	Ted Walsh
Leader of the Opposition of Queensland
	In office; 18 August 1958 – 11 October 1966
Deputy	Eric Lloyd; Jack Houston
Preceded by	Jim Donald
Succeeded by	Jack Houston
Leader of the Labor Party in Queensland; Elections: 1957, 1960, 1963, 1966
	In office; 18 August 1958 – 11 October 1966
Deputy	Eric Lloyd (1958–1966); Jack Houston (1966)
Preceded by	Jim Donald
Succeeded by	Jack Houston
	In office; 24 April 1957 – 15 August 1957
Deputy	Felix Dittmer
Preceded by	Vince Gair
Succeeded by	Les Wood
Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in Queensland
	In office; 16 March 1953 – 24 April 1957
Leader	Vince Gair
Preceded by	Tom Foley
Succeeded by	Felix Dittmer
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly; for Toowoomba West; North Toowoomba (1958–1960)
	In office; 31 May 1958 – 17 May 1969
Preceded by	Les Wood
Succeeded by	Ray Bousen
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly; for Toowoomba
	In office; 14 December 1935 – 3 August 1957
Preceded by	Evan Llewelyn
Succeeded by	Mervyn Anderson
Personal details
Born	John Edmund Duggan; 30 December 1910; Port Augusta, South Australia, Australia
Died	19 June 1993 (aged 82); Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
Resting place	Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery
Political party	Labor
Spouse	Beatrice Mary Dunne (m.1935 d.1984)
Occupation	Shop assistant

John Edmund Duggan (30 December 1910 – 19 June 1993) was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. He was the Deputy Premier of Queensland from 1953 until 1957 and Leader of the Opposition of Queensland from 1958 until 1966.^[1]

Early life

Duggan was born at Port Augusta, South Australia, the son of John Stephen Duggan and his wife Charlotte (née Mathieson). He was educated at the Marree and Hoyleton primary schools before attending a Marist Brothers college in South Australia. By the age of 14 he was orphaned with his mother dying in December 1922 during child birth and his father dying from spinal tuberculosis two years later and Duggan and his siblings were cared for by an auntie and uncle in Toowoomba. He then left school and took up a job as a sales assistant to help support his younger brothers and sisters.^[1]

He gained official leave from parliament^[1] to join the Australian Army in 1941 during World War II, serving in the 25th Battalion seeing action in New Guinea. By the time he was discharged in 1944 he had risen to the rank of captain.^[2]

Political career

Duggan was the state president of the Shop Assistants Union and also president of the Toowoomba branch of the ALP at just 21 years of age. Three years later, he won the seat of Toowoomba for the Labor Party in the 1935 by-election to replace the sitting member, Evan Llewelyn. He went on to represent Toowoomba for the next 22 years.^[1]

Government Minister

In 1947 Duggan was promoted to the Transport portfolio, a post he retained under Ned Hanlon and Vince Gair. From 1953 onward, he was also deputy premier. He lost his cabinet posts when Gair led almost half of his caucus, including the entire cabinet except for Duggan, out of the ALP and formed the Queensland Labor Party in 1957.

Party Leadership

Duggan succeeded Gair as state Labor leader.^[1] When Gair's government sought supply, Duggan led Labor to vote against the motion. The Coalition, led by Frank Nicklin, also voted against the motion and brought the government down.

At the ensuing election, Duggan led Labor to second place in the overall vote and 20 seats. However, since every ALP MP was opposed by a QLP challenger and vice versa, the Labor vote was hopelessly divided. The first past the post system denied the Labor forces the option of directing preferences to each other even if they'd wanted to. Taking advantage of the large number of three-cornered contests, Nicklin led the Coalition to a decisive victory, taking 42 seats against only 31 for the two Labor factio s combined. Duggan himself was defeated by Liberal Mervyn Anderson.^[1]

The Labor Party was eager to get Duggan back into the legislature. Despite having no connection with the electorate of Gregory in central Queensland, he contested a by-election for that seat. He was defeated by a local Country Party candidate, Sir Wallace Rae. In March 1958, Duggan's successor as state Labor leader, Les Wood, suddenly died. Duggan became the ALP candidate for Wood's seat of North Toowoomba. Duggan won the seat comfortably to return to the legislature.^[1]

North Toowoomba was abolished before the next state election and Duggan followed most of his constituents into the new seat of Toowoomba West. He represented the electorate until 1969 when he retired from parliament.^[1]

Duggan served as opposition leader until 1966, a time filled with difficulty. He not only had to deal with the presence of the QLP, which merged into the Democratic Labor Party in 1962, but was faced with particularly strenuous infighting within what was left of the ALP's parliamentary representation. His position was made even more difficult with the reintroduction of preferential voting in 1963. As a result, the DLP not only siphoned off votes from the ALP, but directed its preferences to the Coalition. Thus, the Coalition won elections in 1963 and 1966 without serious difficulty.^[1]

Following the 1966 election Duggan supported Jack Houston's successful challenge to deputy leader Eric Lloyd. Three months later on 11 October 1966 Duggan abruptly resigned as leader due to a "taxation difficulty of some magnitude" with Houston replacing him.^[3]

Having left state politics, Duggan remained in public life. He was elected to the Toowoomba City Council and was Mayor of Toowoomba in 1981.^[1]

Personal life

On Boxing Day, 1935 he married Beatrice Mary Dunne at St Patrick's Cathedral in Toowoomba^[4] and together had one son and one daughter.^[1]

Duggan died in June 1993 and his funeral was held at St Patrick's Cathedral^[5] and proceeded to the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k "Former Members". Parliament of Queensland. 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
^ DUGGAN, JOHN EDMUND — World War II Nominal Roll. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
^ WANNA, JOHN; ARKLAY, TRACEY (2010). The Ayes Have It: The history of the Queensland Parliament, 1957-1989. ANU Press. pp. 189–192. JSTOR j.ctt24h7kp.1. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
^ "WEDDINGS". The Courier-mail. No. 726. Queensland, Australia. 27 December 1935. p. 17. Retrieved 16 April 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
^ Motion Of Condolence — Hansard. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
^ Deceased search — Toowoomba Regional Council. Retrieved 16 April 2016.

Political offices
Preceded by Tom Foley	Deputy Premier of Queensland 1953–1957	Succeeded by Ted Walsh
Preceded by Jim Donald	Leader of the Opposition in Queensland 1958–1966	Succeeded by Jack Houston
Parliament of Queensland
Preceded by Evan Llewelyn	Member for Toowoomba 1935–1957	Succeeded by Mervyn Anderson
Preceded by Les Wood	Member for North Toowoomba 1958–1960	Abolished
New seat	Member for Toowoomba West 1960–1969	Succeeded by Ray Bousen