James Blair (Australian Judge) - Political Career

Political Career

Blair's association with Byrnes led to his interest in politics. Blair contested a general election in 1902 as an independent candidate for Ipswich in the Queensland State elections. He was one of two elected to represented Ipswich in that election. Blair captured the hearts of the electorate by putting up heart shaped signs saying "Give Jimmy a vote" or "In the hearts of the people". In parliament he opposed Sunday trading for pubs and hotels, restricted hours for bars, prohibition of the sale of tobacco to children and the stringent enforcement against gambling. He also sought the takeover of private schools by the Government and the provision of more scholarships after their takeover.

In 1903, at the age of 33, Blair was invited to become Attorney-General of Queensland after Sir Arthur Morgan became Premier of Queensland after the Liberal-Labour coalition victory. One of Blair's first acts was to abolish the office of sheriff. This led to the sacking of Arthur Hoey David (or better known as author Steele Rudd). This led to many vicious personal attacks on Blair in Steele Rudd's Magazine. The office of sheriff was quickly restored when it was realized how much the sheriff actually did. In 1904, Blair additionally became the Minister for Mines. In 1905, Blair introduced the Worker's Compensation Act 1905 (Qld), a major change to workplace safety laws in Queensland. Previous efforts at reform in this area had stalled and this legislation changed the focus from the regulation of safety to instead requiring employers to compensate employees for workplace accidents. He introduced the Children's Court Act 1907 (Qld) providing for the first specialized children's courts in Queensland. These courts were a great success. These specialized children's courts continue to exist in modern times (see Children's Court of Queensland. However, he was unable to gather support for changes to mining laws or to education. As joint editor, he published an annotated version of the Workers Compensation legislation in 1906. He also jointed revised the "Queensland Police Code and Justices' Manual of the Criminal Law" written by Robert Archibald Ranking. He continued in his executive offices after William Kidston became Premier in 1906. He lost those offices in 1907 when Sir Robert Philp became Premier, but was eventually re-appointed after Kidston regained the premiership in 1908.

A constitutional impasse over the Queensland Legislative Council between the Queensland Governor, Lord Chelmsford, and Kidston as Premier led to a general election. Blair introduced two pieces of legislation that became crucial in the later abolition of the upper house. The first reduced the requirement for a two-thirds majority for a bill to become law in Queensland. After this was passed, a further law change was made that allowed for referendum of the people to be held to make laws had been refused in two consecutive sessions of Parliament.

Kidston offered Blair an appointment to the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1908. However, he declined it because it was to be a Northern Queensland appointment and he preferred a Brisbane placement. When Kidston formed a coalition with the Opposition, he removed Blair from his ministerial roles to allow for coalition members to be appointed. Blair went on to lead what became known as the "Independent Opposition". In 1911 he became president of Tattersall's Club. He held this role until 1922.

He married Christina Gibson on 29 February 1912 at St Andrew's Church of England, South Brisbane. They were to have no children. At the general election in that year, Blair stood as a Government candidate for Ipswich. He was elected and he returned to the ministry as Secretary for Public Instruction and held this office until 1915. In Parliament, he introduced law changes to raise the age of consent from 14 to 17 years of age. He also introduced changes to prevent wills excluding immediate family, as well as introducing rules that restricted corporate ownership of pharmacies to Family Societies. He also changed the criteria for the awarding of secondary school scholarships by making them available to all who qualified, rather than by way of competition.

In 1915 Blair lost his seat in parliament at the general election, and he returned to private practice as a barrister. He appeared as junior counsel in the "Legislative Council referendum" case in which he argued that legislation abolishing the Upper House in Queensland was valid. The Full Court of the Supreme Court of Queensland ruled against the validity of that legislation. However, the High Court of Australia overturned that decision and ruled that it was valid. Blair became a member of the senate of the University of Queensland in 1915 and 1916.