John Spicer (Australian politician)

Sir John Armstrong Spicer (5 March 1899 – 3 January 1978) was an Australian lawyer, politician, cabinet minister and judge.

Spicer was born in the Melbourne suburb of Prahran but was taken to England by his family in 1905 and educated at Chelston School, Torquay. His family returned to Australia in 1911 and he attended Hawksburn State School in the inner Melbourne suburb of South Yarra. In 1913 he started working as an officer boy in a legal practice. He studied law at the University of Melbourne from 1916 to 1918 and was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in March 1921 and established a successful practice. He married Lavinia May Webster in June 1924.Australian Dictionary of Biography
last=Browne
first=Geoff
authorlink=
year=2002
id=A160348b
title= Spicer, Sir John Armstrong (1899 - 1978)
accessdate=2007-10-23 ]

Political career

Spicer won a seat in the Senate as a United Australia Party candidate in the 1940 election. In the Senate he spoke frequently on tax issues and promoted "sound and honest finance", but he was defeated at the 1943 election. He strongly opposed Ben Chifleys bank nationalisation and acted for the English banks in court action on the issue. He returned to the Senate as a Liberal Party of Australia candidate in the 1949 election and was immediately appointed Attorney-General in the Menzies government. His first priority was to draft a bill banning the Communist Party of Australia, which was later declared unconstitutional by the High Court of Australia. In 1952, he drafted an official secrets bill which included a provision permitting the death penalty for spying and wide powers of search and arrest without warrant, but this was rejected by Cabinet. He was also Minister for Transport for two weeks after George McLeay's death.

In August 1956, Spicer resigned from parliament so that he could be appointed to the Commonwealth Industrial Court. He also presided over inquiries into naval and air disasters, including a royal commission in 1964 into the sinking of HMAS "Voyager". He found that officers in both "Voyager" and the HMAS "Melbourne had been at fault, but a second royal commission in 1967-68 attributed blame to Voyager's officers only.

Spicer died in the Melbourne suburb of Armadale, survived by his wife and son. He took silk in 1948 and was made a Knight Bachelor in 1963. [cite web
title =Spicer, John Armstrong
work= It's an Honour
publisher = Government of Australia
url = http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?aus_award_id=1083140&search_type=simple&showInd=true
accessdate = 2007-10-23 ]

Notes

Persondata
NAME = Spicer, John Armstrong
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Australian lawyer, politician, cabinet minister and judge
DATE OF BIRTH = 5 March 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH = Prahran, Victoria, Australia
DATE OF DEATH = 3 January 1978
PLACE OF DEATH = Armadale, Victoria