George Reid

Who was George Reid?

Sir George Houstoun Reid, GCB GCMG KC was an Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales and the fourth Prime Minister of Australia.

Reid was the last leader of the Liberal tendency in New South Wales, led by Charles Cowper and Henry Parkes and which Reid organised as the Free Trade and Liberal Association in 1889. He was more effective as Premier of New South Wales from 1894 to 1899 than he was as Prime Minister in 1904 and 1905. This partly reflected the disappearance of the rationale for the Free Trade Party with the imposition of tariffs by the federal government and the disappearance of the political centre ground with the rise of the Australian Labor Party. Although a supporter of Federation, he took an equivocal position on it during the campaign for the first referendum in June 1898, earning himself the nickname of "Yes-No Reid."