{{Short description|Australian politician (1865–1955)}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Honourable | name = Joe Collings | honorific_suffix = | image = Portrait of Senator Joseph Silver Collings (cropped).jpg | office = Minister for the Interior | prime_minister = John Curtin<br/>Frank Forde | term_start = 7 October 1941 | term_end = 13 July 1945 | predecessor = Harry Foll | successor = Herbert Johnson | office2 = Leader of the Government in the Senate | term_start2 = 7 October 1941 | term_end2 = 20 September 1943 | predecessor2 = George McLeay | successor2 = Richard Keane | office3 = Leader of the Opposition in the Senate | term_start3 = 1 July 1935 | term_end3 = 7 October 1941 | predecessor3 = John Barnes | successor3 = George McLeay | title4 = Senator for Queensland | term_start4 = 1 July 1932 | term_end4 = 30 June 1950 | office5 = Member of the Queensland Legislative Council | term_start5 = 19 February 1920 | term_end5 = 23 March 1922 | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1865|5|11}} | birth_place = Brighton, Sussex, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1955|6|20|1865|5|11}} | death_place = Brighton, Queensland, Australia | resting_place = | birth_name = Joseph Silver Collings | spouse = {{marriage|Kate McInerney|1886|1917|reason=died}} | party = Labor | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = Trade union official | profession = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Joseph Silver Collings''' (11 May 1865 – 20 June 1955) was an Australian trade unionist and politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for Queensland from 1932 to 1950. He was a cabinet minister in the Curtin and Chifley governments from 1941 to 1946.
==Early life== Collings was born on 11 May 1865 in Brighton, England. He was the son of Mary Ann (née Dyke) and Joseph Silver Collings. His parents were both religious non-conformists, with his father being a Freethinker and his mother being a Quaker.<ref name=bio/>
Collings was educated at a board school in Brighton. After leaving school he became a cadet journalist for the ''Sussex Daily News''. He moved to Australia with his parents in 1883, settling in Queensland. He worked as a farm labourer for a period and unsuccessfully took up a selection near Mooloolah.<ref name=bio/>
Collings later found work in the footwear industry and was at one time secretary of the Queensland Boot and Shoe Manufacturers' Association. He worked with "scabs" during a strike in 1895 and was ostracised by the Australian Boot Trade Employees' Federation although he worked hard for the labour movement. His support for the 1912 Brisbane general strike led to him being forgiven by the unions and he subsequently established the Federated Clerks' Union in Queensland.<ref name=adb>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=Guyatt |first=Joy |authorlink= |year=1981 |id=A080079b |title= Collings, Joseph Silver (1865–1955) |access-date=11 December 2007 }}</ref>
==Early political involvement== Collings unsuccessfully contested elections to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland in 1908, 1909, and 1915, but was elected to Balmoral Shire Council from 1910 to 1913. He attended Labor Party conventions from 1905 and was elected to the Queensland central executive of the party between 1913 and 1928. From 1914 to 1915 and 1919 to 1931 he was an organiser for the party. In 1916 he campaigned vigorously against conscription in Queensland and Victoria. He was appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council in 1920 and took part in the successful vote to abolish it in 1922. In 1931 he was organising secretary for the provisional state executive set up by the federal party to replace the expelled Lang Labor executive.<ref name=adb/>
==Senate career== Collings was elected to the Senate at the 1931 federal election, to a six-year term beginning on 1 July 1932.<ref name=parl>{{Cite news|url=https://handbook.aph.gov.au/parliamentarians/K7P|title=Collings, the Hon. Joseph Silver|publisher=Parliament of Australia|work=Parliamentary Handbook|access-date=9 August 2025}}</ref> He was 67 years old at the time he took his seat,<ref name=bio/> but would nonetheless remain in the Senate for 18 years, winning re-election to further six-year terms at the 1937 and 1943 elections.<ref name=parl/>
Following the collapse of the Fadden government in 1941, Collings became Leader of the Government in the Senate and was appointed Minister for the Interior in the Curtin government. Much of the minister's ordinary responsibilities for public works were delegated to the Allied Works Council, headed by former ALP treasurer Ted Theodore. He retained responsibility for the Commonwealth Electoral Office, Commonwealth Railways and administration of the national capital Canberra, where he retained existing liquor restrictions and introduced a new ban on Saturday afternoon sales of liquor.<ref name=bio/>
Following Curtin's death in July 1945, Collings was appointed to the largely honorary role of Vice-President of the Executive Council in the Chifley government. He was not reappointed to the ministry after the 1946 election.<ref name=parl/> He did not contest the 1949 election and retired from the Senate in June 1950.<ref name=adb/><ref name=bio>{{Cite Au Senate |Sen id=collings-joseph-silver |name=Collings, Joe |first=D B |last=Waterson |access-date=21 December 2022|year=2004}}</ref> Along with Gordon Brown, Collings was joint Father of the Senate from 1947 to 1950. Collings, at 85 years of age, remains the oldest person to have served in the Senate.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2017/05/apo-nid89156-1110886.pdf|title=First, most and more: facts about the Federal Parliament|last1=Gobbett|first1=Hannah|last2=Speldewinde|first2=Simon|date=10 May 2017|website=Parliamentary Library Research Papers|publisher=Parliament of Australia|page=9|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428093739/https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2017/05/apo-nid89156-1110886.pdf|archive-date=28 April 2019|url-status=live|access-date=28 April 2019|last3=Lundie|first3=Rob}}</ref>
==Later life== In 1886, Collings married Kate McInerney, with whom he had four children.{{sfn|Guyatt|1980|p=83}} His wife died of meningitis in 1917.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/187092318|title=Death of Mrs. J. S. Collings|newspaper=Daily Standard|location=Brisbane|date=10 April 1917}}</ref>
Collings died on 20 June 1955 at his home in Brighton, Queensland, survived by one son and one daughter of his six children.<ref name=adb/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71402730 |title=Ex-Senator J. S. Collings dies at home |newspaper=The Worker |date=20 June 1955 |access-date=20 March 2014 |page=1 |via=Trove}}</ref> He was accorded a state funeral and cremated.<ref name=adb/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite journal|title=Joseph Silver Collings, Labor Organiser, Journalist, Senator|first=Joy|last=Guyatt|year=1980|number=39|pages=83–88|journal=Labour History|doi=10.2307/27508439|jstor=27508439 }}
==External links== {{Commons category|Joe Collings (Australian politician)}} * {{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71404985 |title=Late "Joe" Collings |newspaper=The Worker |date=27 June 1955 |access-date=20 March 2014 |page=4 |via=Trove}} {{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before= Harry Foll}} {{s-ttl|title= Minister for the Interior |years=1941–1945}} {{s-aft|after=Herbert Johnson}} {{s-bef|before= Jack Beasley}} {{s-ttl|title= Vice-President of the Executive Council |years=1945–1946}} {{s-aft|after=William Scully}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef | before=John Barnes}} {{s-ttl | title=Leader of the Australian Labor Party in the Senate | years=1935–1943}} {{s-aft | after=Richard Keane}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collings, Joe}} Category:1865 births Category:1955 deaths Category:Politicians from Brighton Category:British emigrants to Australia Category:Trade unionists from Queensland Category:Members of the Queensland Legislative Council Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Category:Members of the Australian Senate for Queensland Category:Members of the Australian Senate Category:Members of the Cabinet of Australia Category:20th-century Australian politicians