John Arthur

Who was John Arthur?

John Andrew Arthur was an Australian politician and briefly Minister for External Affairs.

Arthur was born in Castlemaine, Victoria, son of a goldminer and spent his childhood in several Victorian goldmining towns. He won a state scholarship allowing him to attend Grenville College, Ballarat for three years. He graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts in 1895. He was a brilliant student and competed a Master of Arts in 1897, a Bachelor of Laws in 1898 and a Master of Laws in 1901. He became a tutor at Queen's College in logic and philosophy, political economy and history, and law and was admitted to the bar in 1903. He became a prominent lawyer in the new federal courts, especially the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration and represented the Agricultural Implement Makers' Union in the Harvester case which led to the basic wage concept that was the basis of wage setting in Australia until the 1990s.