Gordon Scholes

Gordon Glen Denton Scholes AO (7 June 1931 – 9 December 2018) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served in the House of Representatives from 1967 to 1993, representing the Division of Corio. He served terms as Speaker of the House of Representatives (1975–1976), Minister for Defence (1983–1984), and Minister for Territories (1984–1987).

The Honourable Gordon Scholes AO
Scholes in 1983
Minister for Territories
In office 13 December 1984 – 24 July 1987
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke
Preceded by	Tom Uren
Succeeded by	John Brown
Minister for Defence
In office 11 March 1983 – 13 December 1984
Prime Minister	Bob Hawke
Preceded by	Ian Sinclair
Succeeded by	Kim Beazley
Manager of Opposition Business
In office 16 February 1976 – 29 December 1977
Leader	Gough Whitlam (1976-77) Bill Hayden (1977)
Preceded by	Ian Sinclair
Succeeded by	Mick Young
Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office 27 February 1975 – 11 November 1975
Preceded by	Jim Cope
Succeeded by	Sir Billy Snedden
Member of the Australian Parliament for Corio
In office 22 July 1967 – 8 February 1993
Preceded by	Hubert Opperman
Succeeded by	Gavan O'Connor
Personal details
Born	Gordon Glen Denton Scholes (1931-06-07)7 June 1931 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died	9 December 2018(2018-12-09) (aged 87) Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Labor
Spouse	Della K. Robinson

Early life

Scholes was born on 7 June 1931 in West Melbourne, Victoria. He was the only child of Mary Louisa (née O'Brien) and Thomas Glen Denton Scholes; his father was a railway worker and his mother was a psychiatric nurse.

Scholes had a turbulent childhood. He spent two long periods in hospital, once at the age of three following a car accident and again at the age of fourteen following a bout of rheumatic fever. His father enlisted in the military in 1941 and was injured while fighting in New Guinea, subsequently becoming a long-term patient at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital. Scholes stayed with relatives in various locations around Victoria while his mother worked at a munitions factory, attending twelve different schools. He eventually settled in Daylesford where his mother's aunt lived, attending Daylesford Technical High School to the age of fifteen.

After leaving school, Scholes worked at the Daylesford Woollen Mills while training as a fitter and turner at the Ballarat School of Mines. He subsequently joined the Victorian Railways where his father and grandfather had worked, working his way from engine-cleaner to fireman to engine-driver, including on the Spirit of Progress between Melbourne and Sydney. He joined the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees (AFULE) and after settling in Geelong became the union's delegate to the local trades hall. He was also a talented amateur boxer and in 1949 became the amateur heavyweight champion of Victoria.

Politics

Scholes in 1968.

Scholes joined the ALP in 1954 and was elected president of its Geelong branch in 1962. He served as Bob Hawke's campaign manager in the seat of Corio at the 1963 federal election. In 1965, he was elected to the Geelong City Council and as president of the Geelong Trades Hall.

Scholes was the Labor Party candidate in Corio in the 1966 election, and was defeated by incumbent Liberal Sir Hubert Opperman. However, Opperman resigned a few months after the election to become Australia's first High Commissioner to Malta. Scholes won the seat at the ensuing by-election on a swing of 11 percent. He won the seat in his own right at the 1969 election.

Speaker of the House

Scholes served as Speaker from 27 February 1975 until 16 February 1976, a period taken up almost entirely by the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. On 11 November 1975, following the dismissal of the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, and the appointment by Kerr of the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser, as caretaker Prime Minister, the House of Representatives passed a motion of no confidence in the Fraser government, by 10 votes. The no confidence motion also called on the Governor-General to reinstate the Whitlam government. As Speaker, Scholes was charged with conveying that resolution of the House to the Governor-General and to request Kerr to dismiss Fraser and re-appoint Whitlam. Kerr refused to see the Speaker or to recognise the motion of no confidence in the Fraser government by the House of Representatives, keeping Scholes waiting for more than an hour. By the time the Governor-General agreed to see Scholes, Kerr had already dissolved the Parliament on Fraser's advice, which was something Fraser had undertaken to do once he had secured passage of the Supply bills through the Senate. Scholes later accused Kerr of bad faith for making an appointment to receive the Speaker shortly after 3pm, and then not waiting to hear from him before dissolving Parliament more than an hour later, with the appointed Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser still as Prime Minister, without the confidence of the House of Representatives.

Government minister

Scholes was Minister for Defence in the first Hawke Ministry from March 1983 to December 1984 and then Minister for Territories until July 1987. He retired before the 1993 election.

Personal life and death

He was an honorary member of the Geelong Philatelic Society .

Gordon Scholes died on 9 December 2018, aged 87. A State Funeral was held on 18 December.