Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia

William Hegney

Parliamentary Service

House

MLA

Party

Labor Officer State Executive and State Disputes Committee 1928–1939

Date Elected

18 March 1939

Electorate

Pilbara

Service

Electorates

MLA Pilbara 18 March 1939–March 1950 (in 1947 fresh election ordered by Court of Disputed Returns but re-elected 2 August 1947)
MLA Mt Hawthorn 25 March 1950–23 March 1968

Office

Minister for Native Welfare, Labour and Prices (until 13 May 1954) 23 February 1953–20 April 1956
Minister for Education and Labour 20 April 1956–2 April 1959
Chairman Parliamentary Labor Party December 1943–1953

Committees

Member Select Committee inquiring on the COR Ltd (Private) Bill 1940
Member Select Committee on Wool Handling at Appraisement Centres 1945
Member Select Committee on the Disposal of Potatoes in WA 1949
Member Select Committee on the Ways and Means of Obtaining Adequate Meat Supplies in the Metropolitan Area 1950

Inaugural Speech

Year Retired/Resigned

1968

Personal Information

Birth date

11 January 1896

Place of birth

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Death date

13 October 1982

Place of death

Nazareth House, Hilton, Western Australia

Cemetery

Karrakatta Cemetery, Western Australia

Parents

Son of James Hegney, farmer, publican then blacksmith and striker with Western Australian Government Railways, and Ellen Murray Brother of James Hegney, boilermaker and politician

Marriage and Family

Married 27 November 1926, St Joseph’s Church, Subiaco to Vera Margaret Brown (born circa 1897), daughter of Peter Brown and Esther Eliza Coulthard
Children: one son and one daughter
Widowed 16 April 1971

Religion

Catholic

Education

Educated St Brigid’s School, Midland Junction

Occupation

Union secretary

Employment History

Junior clerk with Taxation Department 1 July 1912–1917
Then went shearing and worked in other occupations in Murchison and North-West
In 1920 became organiser and secretary for Australian Workers' Union (AWU) in Northam (for the south-west and wheatbelt) and in the north
Secretary Construction and Federal Division AWU 1928

Background/Membership

Commonwealth Councillor for AWU
Attended as adviser International Labour Organisation Conference, Geneva, 1952

References

Black, David and Geoffrey Bolton. Biographical register of members of the Parliament of Western Australia: volume two 1930-2010, p. 116
West Australian, 22 March 1939.
Who's Who in Australia, (1950)

Further Information