The 1900s

Abstract

Queensland politics during the first decade after Federation is a subject which has received little attention from historians and political scientists. In general, they have shown a marked lack of enthusiasm for the era, preferring to rush on to the period after 1915 — the year in which Queensland Labor formed its first viable, long-term government. In this essay, I propose to show that the 1900s was in fact an important turning point in Queensland history. I will show how the almost exclusively developmental political culture of Queensland was successfully challenged by Liberal and Labor parliamentary forces when the Philp government (1899–1903) could not respond adequately to the problems of Federation and domestic recession. I shall also demonstrate that the tentative steps towards social intervention made by Queensland governments during 1903–15 reflected a significant change in political attitudes within a parliament which had traditionally concentrated on supporting capitalist-orientated development. The moderate electoral, industrial and education reforms offered during the 1900s paved the way for the more radical state interventions offered by subsequent Labor administrations between 1915 and 1957.