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Robert James "Bob" Heffron (10 September 189027 July 1978), also known as R. J. Heffron, was a long-serving New South Wales politician, union organiser and Australian Labor Party Premier of New South Wales from 1959 to 1964. Born in New Zealand, Heffron became involved in various Socialist and Labor movements in New Zealand and later Australia before joining the Australian Labor Party. Being a prominent unionist organiser, having been gaoled at one stage for "conspiracy to strike action", he was eventually elected to the Parliament of New South Wales for Botany in 1930. However his disputes with party leader Jack Lang led to his expulsion from the ALP in 1936 and Heffron formed his own party from disgruntled Labor MPs known as the Industrial Labor Party. The success of his party enabled his readmission to the party and his prominence in a post-Lang NSW Branch which won office in 1941. Heffron served as Minister of the Crown in the cabinets of William McKell, James McGirr and Joseph Cahill, most notably as Minister for Education from 1944 to 1960 and as Deputy Premier. In his significant tenure as minister for education Heffron oversaw massive expansion of the state's public schools and the development of higher education services including the establishment of the New South Wales University of Technology (now the University of New South Wales). Rising to become Premier in 1959, he spearheaded a final attempt to abolish the New South Wales Legislative Council via referendum in 1961, which ended in failure. Serving as Premier until 1964, Heffron was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for 37 years until his retirement on 23 January 1968. ==Early years and background== "Bob" Heffron (as he was widely known) was born on 10 September 1890 in Thames, New Zealand, the fifth child of Irish-born parents Michael Heffron, a blacksmith, and Ellen Heath. After spending his early education at nearby Hikutaia, Heffron left school at 15 to work in a gold-treating plant while studying metallurgy at the Thames School of Mines. At 19, he went to California to work and to the Yukon in Canada to look for gold; when this proved unsuccessful he returned to New Zealand in 1912.〔 Heffron joined the New Zealand Socialist Party in 1912 and, becoming a miners' union organiser, was involved in the Waihi miners' strike, an event significant to the development of the labour movement in New Zealand. Appointed an organiser for the Auckland General Labourers' Union, Heffron studied law part-time at Auckland University College, whilst residing at the Heffron family home at 24 Grosvenor Street Grey Lynn.〔 Although having volunteered for military service in the First World War, Heffron was rejected on medical grounds, with the attending doctor citing heart troubles. However, the rejection on the grounds of health was done despite an allegation that Heffron, in an attempt to encoruage such a finding, had smoked 12 packs of cigarettes prior to his medical, in order to avoid military service.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE21754172 )〕 His elder brother, William Thomas Heffron, enlisted as a Private on 3 October 1917 and was killed in action a few days before the armistice on 4 November 1918, while serving with the 1st Battalion, Auckland Infantry Regiment. On 29 December 1917 he married Jessie Bjornstad, the daughter of a Norwegian engineer and they would have two daughters, Maylean Jessie and June. In 1921, the Heffrons moved to Melbourne, Victoria. That same year in Victoria, Heffron was appointed an organiser for the Federated Clothing Trades of the Commonwealth of Australia and also joined the leftist Victorian Socialist Party. Later in 1921 he moved to Sydney, becoming the secretary of the New South Wales branch of the Federated Marine Stewards' and Pantrymen's Association of Australasia.〔 As the union's state secretary, a role he would hold for ten years, he took a prominent role in maritime trade unionism in Sydney. In February 1924, when the Commonwealth and Dominion Line steamer ''Port Lyttelton'' was declared 'Black' by the Labor Council of New South Wales owing to various worker's disputes and the ship having been declared unseaworthy, Heffron and six other union representatives acted to advise members of the Seamen's Union to refuse to work on the ''Port Lyttelton''. For this, in April the government of Sir George Fuller had Heffron and the six other unionists arrested on the charge of conspiracy to strike action. Although controversially refused bail by the trial judge, Heffron and his fellow defendants, represented by Richard Windeyer KC and H. V. Evatt, were found not guilty and released in July 1924 by the court, a verdict that had been returned by the direction of the judge. Later joining the Australian Labor Party, at the time he showed himself to be a supporter of party leader Jack Lang, supporting Lang's successful motion at the 1923 state conference to readmit James Dooley to the party.〔Williams, "Robert James Heffron", p.317〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bob Heffron」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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