Bernard Corser

Who was Bernard Corser?

Bernard Henry Corser was an Australian politician. In 1912, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland as the member for Burnett, joining the Nationalist Party on its formation in 1917. He held the seat until 1928. In 1928, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives in a by-election for the seat of Wide Bay caused by the death of his father, Nationalist MP Edward Corser. He was elected as a member of the Country Party. In April 1939, the leader of the Country Party's senior Coalition partner the United Australia Party, Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, died, and the leader of the Country Party, Earle Page, became caretaker Prime Minister. The likely replacement for Lyons was Robert Menzies, but Page attacked him. Together with Arthur Fadden, Thomas Collins and Oliver Badman, Corser dissociated himself from Page, and when the latter resigned as leader, the four were barred from the party meeting that elected Page supporter Archie Cameron as leader. As a result, Corser and his colleagues rejected Cameron's leadership. Corser retired in 1954 and became a grazier; he died in 1967.