Maitland Brown - in Politics

In Politics

The role of nominee members of the Council was somewhat ambiguous at the time, there being some dispute over whether nominee members were obliged to vote with the government. Maitland Brown vigorously defended his right to vote according to his conscience, and did indeed vote against the government on a number of occasions. After Governor Weld dissolved the Council in 1871, new elections were held in 1872, and Brown was not nominated to the new council. Although Weld denied that he expected his nominee members to support the government, the decision not to re-nominate Brown was widely seen as a sign that the government expected its nominee members to "toe the line".

In September 1874, Brown was elected unopposed to the Legislative Council's Geraldton seat, on a policy platform of opposition to responsible government. He had also nominated for the North seat, but on his election to the seat in October 1874, he refused election, preferring to sit for Geraldton.

On 16 February 1875, Brown married Amy Frances Howard, with whom he would have three sons and four daughters. In January 1876, Maitland Brown's brother Kenneth murdered his wife in a drunken argument. Maitland was prominent in the family's unsuccessful attempt to mount a defence of diminished responsibility, sparing neither his personal privacy nor his standing in the community in the failed attempt to save his brother from execution. Perceiving that his standing in the community had been damaged by the trial, Brown resigned his seat in the Council in March. He was persuaded to renominate, however, and was re-elected unopposed on 22 July.

Brown's views changed markedly during his later years in the Legislative Council. Whereas he had earlier argued against the necessity of an "opposition", he later became himself firmly opposed to the government. He became an outspoken critic of nearly every government measure, and was especially critical of Governor Robinson. For a time he was widely recognised as the Leader of the Opposition, although on at least one occasion he repudiated the title. Brown's views on responsible government also changed. He had been one of the colony's staunchest opponents of responsible government, but by 1883 he had declared himself a supporter of the proposed change. Having been elected on a policy platform of opposition to responsible government, Brown considered it inappropriate to retain his seat after changing his opinion, so in April 1883 he resigned the seat of Geraldton for the second time. A few weeks later he was elected to the new seat of Gascoyne, which he would hold until his resignation in April 1886.