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List of whips in the Australian House of Representatives
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Whips have managed business and maintained party discipline for Australia's federal political parties in the House of Representatives since Federation. The term has origins in the British parliamentary system. As the number of members of parliament and amount of business before the House has increased, so too has the number of whips. The three parties represented in the first Parliament each appointed one whip. Each of today's three main parties appoint a chief whip, while the Australian Labor Party and Liberals each have an additional two whips and the Nationals have one additional whip. Until 1994, a party's more senior whip held the title "Whip", while the more junior whip was styled "Deputy Whip". In 1994, those titles became "Chief Whip" and "Whip", respectively. The current Chief Government Whip in the House of Representatives is Joanne Ryan of the Australian Labor Party, in office since 31 May 2022.[1] The most recent Chief Opposition Whip in the House of Representatives was Bert van Manen of the Liberal Party, who lost his seat of Forde after the 2025 election; the Liberals have now appointed Aaron Violi as the Chief Opposition Whip to succeed him in the upcoming 48th Parliament.
While many whips have gone on to serve as ministers, only three have gone on to lead their parties: Labor's Frank Tudor, the Country Party's Earle Page, and the National Party's Mark Vaile. Page is the only one of them to have served as prime minister (albeit for only a short time), and Vaile is the only one to have served as deputy prime minister. Tudor, less auspiciously, was the only of them to serve as leader of the opposition.
Page was also one of four people to serve as whip while representing Cowper, the others being Francis Clarke (Protectionist), John Thomson (Commonwealth Liberal and Nationalist), and Garry Nehl (National). As of May 2025, one other constituency has the same distinction: Griffith, represented by William Conelan, Wilfred Coutts, Don Cameron, and Ben Humphreys — all of them belonging to the Labor Party except for Cameron (a Liberal). Oddly, the last three served in the seat consecutively from 1961 to 1996, although Coutts had previously represented the division from 1954 to 1958.
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Australian Labor Party
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The position of Government Chief Whip was created on 12 May 1994. The one Deputy Government Whip was replaced by two Government Whips.[36]
- Notes
- Gil Duthie, the Labor Whip, noted in a debate in November 1968 that the position of Deputy Whip had been created in the Labor party at his request "four or five" years before his speech.[15] That puts the post's creation in the 24th Parliament, which sat from 20 February 1962 to 30 October 1963, or the 25th Parliament, which sat from 25 February 1963 to 28 October 1966. In a debate in 1963, Duthie referred to Coutts as the "Deputy Whip", though it is unclear whether the title had yet been formalised.[16] Coutts participated as a teller, a key duty of a whip, in all divisions in 1962,[17] 1963,[18] and 1964 where Labor and the Coalition were on opposite sides except two in May 1964 and the ones during and immediately before a trip on parliamentary business[19] as part of Australia's delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.[20]
- Later Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
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Coalition
Liberal Party of Australia
- Notes
- Allan Guy was appointed whip of the United Australia Party on 12 February 1941[58] He continued as whip of the new Liberal Party from the founding of the parliamentary party,[59] announced by Robert Menzies on 21 February 1945.[60]
- Parliament adjourned on 20 May 1964 and returned on 11 August. On 10 June,[71] the Whip, Peter Howson, was promoted to Minister for Air, and his deputy, William Aston, was promoted to replace him. Kelly then replaced Aston as Deputy Whip. A National Archives of Australia document records his service as 1 August 1964 to 28 February 1967.[72] Unfortunately, those documents use the first or last day of a month for the date a term began or ended, respectively, when the exact day is unknown. This can be seen, for example, with Kelly's end date of 28 February 1967, when the actual date was in fact 21 February.[73] It is likely therefore that Kelly's appointment happened somewhere from 1 to 11 August 1964. It is also possible that he was appointed Deputy Whip as early as 10 June and that the document is based on paperwork filed when the House of Representatives convened in August.
Country Party/National Party of Australia
- Notes
- Later Leader of the Country Party (1922–39) and Prime Minister of Australia (1939).
- Later Later Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
- Later Leader of the Country Party and Deputy Prime Minister (2005–07)
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Defunct parties
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Free Trade/Anti-Socialist Party
Protectionist Party
Commonwealth Liberal Party
National Labor
Nationalist Party of Australia
United Australia Party
Lang Labor
New South Wales Premier and Labor Party Leader Jack Lang's adherents in the Federal Parliament crossed the floor in 1931 to defeat Labor Prime Minister James Scullin, precipitating the 1931 election. Following the election, Lang's NSW Labor Party expelled members who, being loyal to the federal party, had stood against official NSW Labor candidates. The federal party then expelled Lang and his supporters. Lang's four supporters formed their own parliamentary party, with Jack Beasley (who had led the faction within the Labor Party) as leader. The party expanded to nine following the 1934 election and at their pre-sessional meeting in October re-elected Beasley and elected a deputy leader and whip. Following Scullin's resignation as Labor leader in late 1935, the Lang and Official Labor began negotiating a resolution to the split, and the two parties formally adopted an agreement under which the NSW Labor Party was absorbed back into the federal party on 25 February 1936.[180]
- Notes
- Identically worded news stories appeared in newspapers in July 1905 following the fall of the Reid government that suggested Sydney Smith would resume the position.[145] Wilks, however, continued as whip.[146][147][148] These reports may have been simple misreporting, or the appointment of Smith may have been due to Wilks's intention at that point to nominate for Deputy Speaker; Wilks, in the end, did not put himself forward. Smith may have been a placeholder due to the unlikelihood of Wilks's success given the state of the parties, or Wilks may have been given back the role of whip when he chose not to stand for Deputy Speaker.
- Later Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
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References
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