Alan Hulme

Who was Alan Hulme?

Sir Alan Shallcross Hulme KBE was an Australian politician, accountant and cattle breeder. He was born in the Sydney suburb of Mosman and moved to Queensland before World War II, where he practised as an accountant. He was a founding member of the Queensland People's Party and was its president in 1949, when it merged with the Liberal Party.

Hulme won the House of Representatives seat of Petrie at its creation at the 1949 election for the Liberal Party. He was Minister for Supply from 1958 to his defeat in the 1961 election by Reginald O'Brien. He won Petrie back at the 1963 election and became Postmaster-General until his retirement at the 1972 election. He was also Vice-President of the Executive Council from 1966 to 1972. As Postmaster-General, he was responsible for the introduction of an Australian-owned satellite system in 1970, Aussat, which was later privatised as Optus. In 1972 he was involved in the decision to impose health warnings on cigarette advertising. He was also responsible for the controversial decision to build Black Mountain Tower in Canberra. In 1972 he announced that colour television would be introduced in Australia from 1 March 1975, by which time he had retired from politics and his party was out of office.