{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Honourable | name = Charles Culley | honorific_suffix = CMG | image = Portrait of Charles Ernest Culley (cropped).jpg | constituency_MP = Denison | parliament = Australian | majority = | predecessor = John Gellibrand | successor = Arthur Hutchin | term_start = 17 November 1928 | term_end = 19 December 1931 | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1877|4|16}} | birth_place = Brighton, Tasmania | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1949|6|10|1877|4|16}} | death_place = New Town, Tasmania | spouse = Mary Jane Pope | party = Australian Labor Party | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = Miner, unionist | profession = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Charles Ernest Culley''' CMG (16 April 1877 – 10 June 1949) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served in the Australian House of Representatives (1928–1931) and Tasmanian House of Assembly (1934–1948). He was an assistant minister in the federal Scullin government and later became a minister in the Tasmanian state government.
==Early life== Culley was born at Broadmarsh, near Brighton, Tasmania and attended primary school. He worked in stables and was occasionally a jockey. He later worked as a miner at Broken Hill, Beaconsfield and Tullah and married Mary Jane Pope, in 1906. He was elected secretary of the Amalgamated Miners' Association in 1912. He moved to Hobart in 1913 and became prominent in the union movement. He was a long-serving secretary of the Builders' Labourers Union and state secretary of the Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees' Union of Australia; he was also secretary and president of the Tasmanian Female Confectioners Union and state president of the Australian Textile Workers Union.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25922363 |title=Union Is Strength... |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=17 December 1941 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=3 |via=Trove }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23776690 |title=LIQUOR TRADES UNION. |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=10 November 1924 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=2 |via=Trove }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article29203595 |title=SECRETARY HONOURED |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=21 October 1937 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=7 |via=Trove }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226430505 |title=INDUSTRIAL NEWS |newspaper=The Examiner (Tasmania) |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=17 December 1924 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=13 |via=Trove }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23750827 |title=FEMALE CONFECTIONERS' UNION. |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=21 July 1924 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=3 |via=Trove }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23774814 |title=INDUSTRIAL NEWS. TEXTILE INDUSTRY |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=1 November 1924 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=11 |via=Trove }}</ref> He was president of the Hobart Trades Hall Council for most of the period from 1934 to 1944 and also served as president of the state Labor Party.<ref name=adb>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |last= Davis |first= R. P. |authorlink= |year=1981 |id=A080187b |title= Culley, Charles Ernest (1877–1949) |accessdate=6 March 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26631478 |title=PROMINENT POLITICAL IDENTITY DIES |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=11 June 1949 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=4 |via=Trove }}</ref>
==Early political career==
Culley was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly seat of Denison for the Australian Labor Party at the 1922 election. He lost his seat in the 1928 state election, but won the federal seat of Denison at the 1928 federal election. When Joseph Lyons resigned from the Scullin Ministry in March 1931, Culley became Assistant Minister for Transport and War Service Homes, but in June he resigned in protest at cabinet's support for the fiscally-conservative Premiers' Plan to deal with the Great Depression.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article95230460 |title=FEDERAL MINISTRY |newspaper=Kalgoorlie Miner |location=Western Australia |date=26 June 1931 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=4 |via=Trove }}</ref> He lost his seat at the 1931 election.
==Return to state politics== In 1934, Culley was elected to the state seat of Denison. He was chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works from 1934 to 1943. He was Minister for Mines from 1942 to 1943 and then Chief Secretary and Minister for Transport. In 1946, he did not seek re-election to the ministry due to his poor health and he retired from parliament in August 1948.<ref name=adb/><ref name=pt>{{cite Tas Parliament |title=Culley, Charles Ernest |id=culleyc378 |access-date=26 July 2022}}</ref>
Culley was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1947.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26649608 |title=Honours Conferred On Hobart Men |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=1 June 1949 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=3 |via=Trove }}</ref> He died at the Hobart suburb of New Town in 1949; a state funeral was held at St David's' Cathedral and he was cremated at the Cornelian Bay Crematorium.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26630111 |title=STATE FUNERAL FOR MR. C. E. CULLEY |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=13 June 1949 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=5 |via=Trove }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52682360 |title=HIGH TRIBUTES TO MR. C. E. CULLEY |newspaper=The Examiner (Tasmania) |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=15 June 1949 |access-date=1 January 2020 |page=4 |via=Trove }}</ref> He was survived by his wife, a daughter and four sons.<ref name=adb/>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|au}} {{s-bef | before=John Gellibrand }} {{s-ttl | title=Member for Denison | years=1928–1931}} {{s-aft | after=Arthur Hutchin }} {{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Culley, Charles Ernest}} Category:Australian miners Category:Australian trade unionists Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Category:Members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Denison Category:Members of the Cabinet of Australia Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:1877 births Category:1949 deaths Category:Australian MPs 1928–1929 Category:Australian MPs 1929–1931