John Chanter
Encyclopedia
John Moore Chanter was an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician, farmer and commission agent. He was variously a member of the Protectionist Party
Protectionist Party
The Protectionist Party was an Australian political party, formally organised from 1889 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. It argued that Australia needed protective tariffs to allow Australian industry to grow and provide employment. It had its greatest strength in Victoria and in...

, Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 and Nationalist Party of Australia
Nationalist Party of Australia
The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

.

Chanter was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and was the son of John Chanter and Elizabeth, née Moore. He was educated at the Albert House Academy and the Collegiate School of St Peter in Adelaide, as well as at the Model Training Institution when his family relocated to Melbourne in 1856. Chanter was a storekeeper and farmer and in 1878, he became the first secretary of the Victorian Farmers' Union.

In 1881 he moved to Moama
Moama, New South Wales
Moama is a town in the Riverina district of southern New South Wales, Australia, in the Murray Shire Local Government Area. The town is directly across the Murray River from the larger tourist town of Echuca in the neighbouring state of Victoria, to which it is connected by a bridge...

, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, as an auctioneer and commission agent where he was prominent in establishing the Australian Natives Association
Australian Natives Association
The Australian Natives' Association , a mutual society was founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. The Association played a leading role in the movement for Australian federation in the last 20 years of the 19th century. In 1900 it had a membership of 17,000, mainly in Victoria.The ANA...

 in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, and became its first president in 1900.

His political career began in 1885 when he elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 as the Member for Murray
Electoral district of Murray-Darling
Murray-Darling is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by John Williams of the National Party of Australia....

. He served the electorate for the next three terms before becoming the Member for Deniliquin
Electoral district of Deniliquin
Deniliquin was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, created with the abolition of single-member electorates in 1894, mainly from the abolished electoral district of Balranald, and named after and including Deniliquin...

 in 1894. He held the portifolio of Secretary for Mines in the second Dibbs Ministry from 17 January 1889 to 7 March 1889.

Chanter was noted for his democratic views, and was a supporter of Edmund Barton
Edmund Barton
Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, KC , Australian politician and judge, was the first Prime Minister of Australia and a founding justice of the High Court of Australia....

 in the lead-up to the Federation of Australia
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...

. In 1901 he was elected to the seat of Riverina
Division of Riverina
The Division of Riverina is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in south-west rural New South Wales, generally following the Murrumbidgee River valley. It includes the cities of Wagga Wagga and Griffith as well as the towns of Junee, West Wyalong, Tumut,...

 in the first Australian Parliament, as a member of the Protectionist Party
Protectionist Party
The Protectionist Party was an Australian political party, formally organised from 1889 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. It argued that Australia needed protective tariffs to allow Australian industry to grow and provide employment. It had its greatest strength in Victoria and in...

.

Chanter lost Riverina in 1903 to the Free Trade Party
Free Trade Party
The Free Trade Party which was officially known as the Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association, also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states and renamed the Anti-Socialist Party in 1906, was an Australian political party, formally organised between 1889 and 1909...

 candidate Robert Blackwood
Robert Blackwood (Australian politician)
Robert Officer Blackwood was an Australian politician, businessman and pastoralist. He was briefly a member of the Australian House of Representatives for the Division of Riverina....

, but regained it in the 1904 by-election after a petition to the High Court
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...

. Chanter opposed the Fusion of 1909, and (together with Sir William Lyne
William Lyne
Sir William John Lyne KCMG , Australian politician, was Premier of New South Wales and a member of the first federal ministry.-Early life:...

) he did not join the Commonwealth Liberal Party
Commonwealth Liberal Party
The Commonwealth Liberal Party was a political movement active in Australia from 1909 to 1916, shortly after federation....

. Chanter instead joined the Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

, declaring his beliefs as closer to Labor than the Commonwealth Liberals. He again lost Riverina to Franc Falkiner
Franc Falkiner
Franc Brereton Sadleir Falkiner was an Australian politician and grazier, born on the Ararat, Victoria goldfields to Frank Sadleir Falkiner and Emily Elizabeth, née Bazley...

, the Commonwealth Liberal Party candidate in the 1913 election
Australian federal election, 1913
Federal elections were held in Australia on 31 May 1913. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Andrew Fisher was defeated by the opposition Commonwealth Liberal...

, but he regained the seat for Labor in 1914
Australian federal election, 1914
Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 September 1914. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 36 seats in the Senate were up for election in a double dissolution...

.

As a result of the dispute over conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 in 1916, Chanter left the Labor Party and, together with several other former Labor members and the Liberal Party, formed the Nationalist Party
Nationalist Party of Australia
The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

. He retained Riverina until the 1922 election
Australian federal election, 1922
Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority...

, when he was defeated by William Killen
William Killen
William Wilson Killen was an Australian politician. Born and educated in Ireland, he migrated to Australian in 1876 and became a farm worker and eventually a farmer at Corowa...

, candidate for the new Country Party. He was the first Member of the House of Representatives to have been defeated three times in the same seat. He was praised as a local member and, though he rarely contributed to political debate, his views were always held strongly.

Chanter married Mary Ann Clark in 1863, although she died in 1920, survived by six sons and four daughters. After his departure from politics, Chanter retired to Caulfield, Victoria
Caulfield, Victoria
Caulfield is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Glen Eira...

, where he died in 1931 and was buried in Brighton Cemetery
Brighton Cemetery
Brighton Cemetery is located in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield South, Victoria, but takes its name from Brighton, Victoria.The Cemetery pre-dates the Caulfield Roads Board - the first official recognition of the suburb of Caulfield. Opened in 1855 it became, together with St. Kilda Cemetery, an...

. One of his sons, John Courtenay Chanter
John Courtenay Chanter
For John Courtenay Chanter's father, John Moore Chanter, a member of the New South Wales and Australian parliaments see John ChanterJohn Courtenay Chanter was an Australian politician and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly between 1943 and 1947...

 (1881-1962), served in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and later became a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

, representing the division of Lachlan
Electoral district of Lachlan
Lachlan was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. During the first two Parliaments , there was an electorate in the same area called Lachlan and Lower Darling, named after the Lachlan and Darling Rivers. Lachlan was created in 1859 and...

 for the Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

.
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