{{Short description|Lawyer and politician of Western Australia}} {{Use Australian English|date=March 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Honourable | name = Sir Norbert Keenan | honorific_suffix = QC | image = Norbert Keenan.png | image_size = 150px | office = Leader of the Nationalist Party<br/>in Western Australia | term_start = April 1933 | term_end = April 1938 | predecessor = Sir James Mitchell | successor = Ross McDonald | office2 = Member of the Legislative Assembly<br/>of Western Australia | constituency2 = Kalgoorlie | term_start2 = 27 October 1905 | term_end2 = 3 October 1911 | predecessor2 = William Johnson | successor2 = Albert Green | constituency3 = Nedlands | term_start3 = 12 April 1930 | term_end3 = 25 March 1950 | predecessor3 = None {{Small|(new creation)}} | successor3 = David Grayden | birth_date = {{Birth date|1864|1|30|df=y}} | birth_place = Glasnevin, County Dublin, Ireland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1954|4|24|1864|1|30|df=y}} | death_place = Subiaco, Western Australia | party = Nationalist (1930–1945)<br/>Liberal (after 1945) | other_party = Independent (1904) | alma_mater = Trinity College Dublin | occupation = }}
'''Sir Norbert Michael Keenan''' QC (30 January 1864 – 24 April 1954) was an Australian lawyer and politician who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1905 to 1911 and again from 1930 to 1950. He was the leader of the Nationalist Party from 1933 to 1938, during the time when it was the junior partner in the coalition with the Country Party. Keenan had earlier served as a minister in the government of Newton Moore (as attorney-general) and the second government of Sir James Mitchell.
==Early life== Keenan was born in Glasnevin, County Dublin, Ireland, to Elizabeth Agnes (née Quin) and Sir Patrick Joseph Keenan.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a94QAAAAYAAJ&q=Sir+Norbert+Michael+Keenan&pg=PA597|title=The Irish Law Times and Solicitors' Journal|date=1884|publisher=J. Falconer|language=en}}</ref> His father was an educationalist and a member of the Privy Council of Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/library/MPHistoricalData.nsf/(Lookup)/41965B392F949B42482577E50028A68D?OpenDocument|title=MP Historical Data|website=www.parliament.wa.gov.au|access-date=2017-11-14}}</ref> Keenan was sent to Downside School (in Somerset, England) for his secondary schooling, and then studied law at Trinity College Dublin. He was admitted to King's Inns in 1890, allowing him to practise as a barrister in Ireland, and was later also admitted to the Middle Temple, allowing him to practise as a barrister in England and Wales.<ref name="bio">[http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/library/MPHistoricalData.nsf/(Lookup)/41965B392F949B42482577E50028A68D?OpenDocument Norbert Michael Keenan] – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 15 June 2016.</ref> Keenan emigrated to Western Australia in April 1895, and settled in Kalgoorlie, where he represented the interests of British investors on the Eastern Goldfields.<ref name="adb">{{cite AuDB |first=Geoffrey|last=Bolton|authorlink=Geoffrey Bolton|title=Keenan, Sir Norbert Michael (1864–1954)|volume=9|edition=|year=1983|id2=keenan-sir-norbert-michael-6908|accessdate= }}</ref> In June 1901, he was elected Mayor of Kalgoorlie, replacing Staniforth Smith.<ref>[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/33022689 "MR. KEENAN'S MAYORALTY REVIEWED."], ''Kalgoorlie Western Argus'', 26 September 1905.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OBJFAQAAMAAJ&q=Sir+Norbert+Michael+Keenan&pg=PA111|title=Fred Johns's Annual, Mainly a Biographical Record of Australasia's Prominent People: (incorporating Who is who in Australasia)|last=Johns|first=Fred|date=1914|publisher=Sir I. Pitman & sons, Limited|language=en}}</ref> He served in the position until December 1905, resigning to concentrate on state politics.<ref>[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/33028309 "KALGOORLIE MUNICIPALITY."], ''Kalgoorlie Western Argus'', 12 December 1905.</ref>
==Political career== At the 1904 state election, Keenan unsuccessfully contested the seat of Kalgoorlie as an independent, losing to the sitting Labor member, William Dartnell Johnson. He reversed the result at the 1905 election, standing as a Ministerialist (a supporter of the government of Hector Rason).<ref name="res">{{cite book|last1=Black|first1=David|authorlink=David Black (historian)|last2=Prescott|first2=Valerie|title=Election statistics : Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890-1996|year=1997|publisher=Western Australian Parliamentary History Project and Western Australian Electoral Commission|location=Perth, [W.A.]|isbn=0730984095}}</ref> When Newton Moore replaced Rason as premier in May 1906, he chose Keenan to be his attorney-general. While in office, he chaired a Legislative Assembly select committee into Western Australia's electoral system, which recommended that the state adopt preferential voting and make various other changes.<ref>Phillips, Harry (2012). ''[http://www.prsa.org.au/western_australia_pr.pdf Proportional Representation in Western Australia: Its Principles, History, Outcomes and Education]''. Perth, [W.A.]: Western Australian Electoral Commission. pp. 15–17.</ref> Credit for the resulting piece of legislation, the ''Electoral Act 1907'', was largely given to Keenan,<ref name="adb"/> and the act is still in force.<ref>[https://www.slp.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/main_mrtitle_290_homepage.html ''Electoral Act 1907''], Western Australian Legislation, State Law Publisher, Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 28 June 2016.</ref> As a senior member of the government, Keenan also represented Western Australia at the 1907 Premiers' Conference. He resigned as attorney-general in May 1909, due to disagreements with the government's financial policies.<ref name="adb"/>
Keenan did not contest the 1911 state election, with his seat being lost to Albert Green of the Labor Party.<ref name="res"/> He concentrated on his law practice, having been made King's Counsel (KC) in 1908, and also served on the senate of the University of Western Australia (UWA) from 1912 to 1918.<ref name="adb"/> After a gap of over 18 years, Keenan re-entered parliament at the 1930 state election, winning the newly created seat of Nedlands for the Nationalist Party.<ref name="res"/> Just eleven days after being elected, he was included in the new ministry formed by Sir James Mitchell, taking the positions of Chief Secretary and Minister for Education.<ref name="bio"/> While in charge of the Education Department, Keenan made the unpopular decision to close Claremont Teachers College indefinitely, to save money during the Great Depression. He resigned from cabinet in September 1931, due to a dispute over government policy.<ref name="adb"/>
At the 1933 state election, the Mitchell government was defeated, with Mitchell and the two other Nationalist ministers (John Scaddan and Hubert Parker) losing their seats.{{Efn|At the time of the 1933 election, the Mitchell ministry had seven members, three from the Nationalist Party and four from the Country Party. All three Nationalist ministers lost their seats, as did John Lindsay of the Country Party. However, two of the Country Party ministers were members of the Legislative Council, and thus not up for re-election at that time.}} As he was the only remaining Nationalist in parliament with ministerial experience, a post-election party-room meeting elected Keenan as the new leader. The Nationalists had lost so many seats that they became the junior partners in the coalition with the Country Party, with the Country Party's leader, Charles Latham, serving as Leader of the Opposition. Keenan's party failed to make any improvement at the 1936 election, and he resigned as leader in April 1938 in favour of Ross McDonald.<ref name="adb"/> His age (74) and health were factors in his resignation.<ref>[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/58804908 "Mr. Keenan to Retire"], ''The Sunday Times'', 20 March 1938.</ref><ref>[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/41669823 "Mr. Keenan Seeks a Change"], ''The West Australian'', 21 March 1938.</ref>
Keenan was opposed by Dorothy Tangney, a future Labor senator, at the 1936 and 1939 elections, but retained his seat easily on both occasions. At the 1943 and 1947 elections, he did likewise, facing only independents as opponents.<ref name="res"/> He had affiliated with the new Liberal Party upon its creation in 1945.<ref name="bio"/> Aged 86 at the time of the 1950 election, Keenan was opposed in Nedlands by three other candidates. He and one other candidate were endorsed by the Liberal Party, while the two others ran as unendorsed Liberals. Keenan polled only 23.3 percent of the first-preference vote, which was not enough to make the final two-candidate-preferred count, and the eventual victor was David Grayden, a 25-year-old leader of the party's youth wing.<ref name="res"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/geoffrey_bolton_lecture_dblack_2010_000.pdf|title=PARLIAMENT, THE PEOPLE AND ARCHIVES: DOCUMENTING POLITICS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA|last=Black|first=David|website=labourhistory.org.au}}</ref>
==Personal life== Keenan died in Perth in April 1954, aged 90. He had married Rose Elizabeth Parker in 1900, with whom he had two children.<ref name="bio"/> Her father was Sir Stephen Henry Parker, who was Chief Justice of Western Australia from 1906 to 1914,<ref>[http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/library/MPHistoricalData.nsf/(Lookup)/51242AB1E695AD64482577E50028A75D?OpenDocument Stephen Henry Parker] – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 14 May 2016.</ref> and her uncle was George Leake, who was Premier of Western Australia on two occasions.<ref>[http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/library/MPHistoricalData.nsf/(Lookup)/BF2E4F36B74D55EA482577E50028A6B3?OpenDocument George Leake] – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 14 May 2016.</ref> One of Keenan's brothers-in-law was Thomas Percy Draper (attorney-general from 1919 to 1921), who married his wife's sister.<ref>[http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/Library/MPHistoricalData.nsf/LookupName/278C9A59B4BF18B2482577E50028A5C7?opendocument Thomas Percy Draper] – Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 14 May 2016.</ref> Keenan was a Catholic.<ref name="bio" />
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|au-wa}} {{s-bef|before=William Johnson}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for Kalgoorlie|years=1905–1911}} {{s-aft|after=Albert Green}} |- {{s-new|seat}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for Nedlands|years=1930–1950}} {{s-aft|after=David Grayden}} |- {{s-off}} |- {{s-bef|before=Hector Rason}} {{s-ttl|title=Attorney-General|years=1906–1909}} {{s-aft|after=Newton Moore}} |- {{s-bef|before=John Drew}} {{s-ttl|title=Chief Secretary|years=1930–1931}} {{s-aft|after=Charles Baxter}} |- {{s-bef|before=John Drew}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister for Education|years=1930–1931}} {{s-aft|after=Thomas Davy}} {{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keenan, Norbert}} Category:1864 births Category:1954 deaths Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Category:Attorneys-general of Western Australia Category:Australian barristers Category:Australian Knights Bachelor Category:Australian King's Counsel Category:Australian Roman Catholics Category:Burials at Karrakatta Cemetery Category:English barristers Category:Irish barristers Category:Irish emigrants to colonial Australia Category:Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Western Australia Category:Mayors of places in Western Australia Category:Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Category:Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Western Australia Category:People educated at Downside School Category:Lawyers from Dublin (city) Category:19th-century Irish lawyers Category:19th-century Australian lawyers Category:20th-century Australian lawyers Category:Alumni of King's Inns Category:Ministers for education (Western Australia)