{{Short description|Australian politician (1890–1960)}} {{More footnotes needed|date=June 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Percy Clarey | honorific_suffix = | image = Percy_Clarey.png | office = Member of Australian Parliament for Bendigo | term_start = 10 December 1949 | term_end = 17 May 1960 | predecessor = George Rankin | successor = Noel Beaton | office1 = Member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Doutta Galla | term_start1 = 12 June 1937 | term_end1 = 18 June 1949 | alongside1 = Paul Jones | predecessor1 = Electorate established | successor1 = Bill Slater | office2 = 3rd President of the ACTU | term_start2 = 1943 | term_end2 = 1949 | predecessor2 = Albert Monk | successor2 = Albert Monk | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1890|1|20}} | birth_place = Bairnsdale, Victoria Colony, British Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1960|5|17|1890|1|20}} | death_place = Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia | spouse = {{Plainlist| * {{marriage|Katherine Chambers|31 March 1917|December 1936|end=divorced}} * {{marriage|Florence Midiam Cater|21 August 1948}} }} | party = Labor Party | relatives = Arthur Clarey (brother) | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = Politician | footnotes = }} '''Percy James Clarey''' (20 January 1890{{spaced ndash}}17 May 1960) was an Australian trade union leader and politician. He served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) from 1943 to 1949 and represented the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the Victorian Legislative Council (1937−1949) and Australian House of Representatives (1949−1960).
==Early life== Clarey was born at Bairnsdale, Victoria, the fifth child of general agent Francis William Clarey and Jessie Littlejohn Clarey, née Lawson. The family soon moved to Melbourne, and Percy attended South Yarra State School and the Working Men's College. In his youth, Clarey was crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, and walked with crutches for the rest of his life. He joined the labour movement as a teenager and was secretary of the Kensington branch of the ALP.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/249949391|title=Percy J. Clarey|newspaper=Labor Call|date=14 September 1922}}</ref> Employed as a clerk, he was Victorian president of the Federated Clerks' Union by the time he was 24 and federal president at 27. He also served as federal president of both the Amalgamated Food Preserving Employees' Union of Australia and the Federated Storemen and Packers' Union of Australia.
Clarey married schoolteacher Katherine Mary Isabel Chambers at Box Hill, Victoria on 31 March 1917. They had two sons before their divorce in 1936. Katherine was also prominent in the labour movement, and was the Labor candidate for the Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Caulfield in 1935, although she withdrew shortly before the poll.
Meanwhile, Clarey continued to rise in the union movement, being president of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1934 and president of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council in 1935. During World War II, he was on the board of the Department of Munitions and the Manpower Priorities Board, as well as being a delegate to the 1944 International Labour Conference.
==State politics and ACTU presidency== In 1937, Clarey was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council, a position he held until 1949. He was minister of labour and public health during 1943 and minister of labour and employment from 1945 to 1947 under the premiership of John Cain. He was criticised for holding the positions of labour minister and President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions simultaneously. He married divorcee Florence Midiam Cater, née Knowles, on 21 August 1948.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
As ACTU president, Clarey formed a partnership with his eventual successor, secretary Albert Monk, and resisted the various attempts by the Communist Party of Australia to gain control of the trade unions. He conceded that the Communist Party had a right to exist, but was strenuously opposed to communism in the ALP.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
In 1948, Clarey publicly supported the White Australia policy following criticism from the World Council of Churches. He said that allowing non-white immigration would introduce racial tension similar to South Africa and United States and lower the national standard of living, as "Australia does not desire the colored peoples of the world to be brought into this country to be hewers of wood and drawers of water".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206876736|title=Unions and White Australia|date=10 February 1948|newspaper=The Age}}</ref>
==Federal politics== In 1949, Clarey transferred to the federal House of Representatives, winning the seat of Bendigo by only 152 votes.<ref>N.W Saffin (1974), ''Left and Right in Bendigo and Shepparton 1947-51'', Lowden Publishing Co., Kilmore, p.68</ref> He was defeated for the deputy leadership in 1951 by Arthur Calwell, losing by nine votes on the third ballot and outpolling veterans Eddie Ward and Allan Fraser.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18213376|title=Labour's new head: Evatt unopposed|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=21 June 1951}}</ref> He was mentioned as a possible successor to the troubled H.V. Evatt as parliamentary leader. Although associated with the right wing of the ALP, Clarey always kept to the party line. He had consistently cordial dealings with Robert Menzies.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
Sometimes accused of being a "bosses' man" and a "strike breaker" by union opponents, Clarey was nevertheless a supporter of the Indonesians against Dutch colonialism.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
In 1955 he called for the term "white Australia" to be removed from the ALP platform, instead being replaced with the term like "restricted immigration".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71875584|title='White Australia' slogan must go, says Clarey|newspaper=The Argus|location=Melbourne|date=11 April 1955}}</ref> Clarey visited Israel in the 1950s and subsequently "spoke up on behalf of Israel on many issues" in parliament. He was obituarised in the ''Australian Jewish News'' as "a friend of the Jewish community over a period of many years".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/262391566|title=Jewry Mourns Percy Clarey|newspaper=Australian Jewish News|date=20 May 1960}}</ref> In 1954, Clarey was sent to New York City as Australia's delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. He also visited China in 1957.
Clarey died on 17 May 1960 in Oakleigh, Victoria. He had been ill since a bout of pneumonia in February 1960.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/103079876|title=High Tributes to Mr. Clarey|newspaper=The Canberra Times|date=18 May 1960}}</ref> He was survived by the sons of his first marriage. He was given a state funeral before being cremated with Methodist forms. His brother, Arthur Clarey, was the member for Melbourne in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1955 to 1972.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
*{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Lloyd |first=C.J. |authorlink=|year=1993|id=A130473b.htm|title= Clarey, Percy James (1890 - 1960) |accessdate=2008-03-15}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|au}} {{succession box | title=Member for Bendigo | before= George Rankin | after= Noel Beaton | years=1949–1960}} {{s-npo|union}} {{s-bef | before=Albert Monk}} {{s-ttl | title=President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions | years=1943–1949}} {{s-aft | after=Albert Monk}} {{s-end}}
{{ACTU Presidents}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarey, Percy}} Category:1890 births Category:1960 deaths Category:Australian Council of Trade Unions people Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Bendigo Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Category:Australian white nationalists Category:People from Bairnsdale Category:Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Category:Ministers for health (Victoria) Category:Ministers for employment (Victoria) Category:Ministers for labour (Victoria) Category:Australian MPs 1949–1951 Category:Australian MPs 1951–1954 Category:Australian MPs 1954–1955 Category:Australian MPs 1955–1958 Category:Australian MPs 1958–1961 Category:20th-century Australian trade unionists