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Niels Nielsen (politician)

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(Redirected from Niels Nielsen (Australian politician)) Politician and union official in New South Wales, Australia

Niels Nielsen c 1911
Nielsen Park in Sydney Harbour, named after Nielsen

Niels Rasmus Wilson Nielsen (2 March 1869 – 1 July 1930) was a Danish-born politician and union official in New South Wales, Australia.

Life and career

He was born in Copenhagen to Niels Peter Nielsen and Susan Wilson. He arrived in Australia around 1874, becoming a carpenter and farmer near Young and a local officer of the Australian Workers' Union. Around 1888 he married Marie Booth in Yass; they had three daughters and three sons. He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Boorowa at the 1899 by-election. Boorowa was abolished in the 1904 re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90, and was largely absorbed by Yass, with the balance going to the new district of Burrangong.

He transferred to Yass in 1904. In 1910 he was appointed Secretary for Lands in the McGowen ministry, the first state Labor government. Labor policy was that land should not be converted from leasehold to freehold. Nielson drafted legislation to repeal the Land Conversion Act however this proved to be controversial, with extensive division in the Labor Party, resulting in Bill Dunn and Henry Hoyle resigning from parliament in July 1911, removing Labor's slim majority in the Legislative Assembly. Caucus dropped his legislation and Nielsen resigned from the ministry on 1 August 1911. Unable to regain ministerial office, he resigned his seat in 1913.

He was the New South Wales trade commission in San Francisco from 1913 and in 1916 as a conscriptionist left the Labor Party for the Nationalist Party. His position was terminated in 1917. He was chairman of the Taronga Park Trust from 1927 until his death at Gladesville on 1 July 1930(1930-07-01) (aged 61), survived by his estranged wife Marie, three daughters and two sons.

References

  1. ^ Nairn, Bede (1988). "Nielsen, Niels Rasmus Wilson (1869–1930)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  2. Green, Antony. "Elections for the District of Boorowa". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  3. "1904 Redistribution". Atlas of New South Wales. NSW Land & Property Information. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015.
  4. Green, Antony. "Elections for the District of Yass". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  5. ^ "Mr Niels Rasmus Wilson Nielsen (1869–1930)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  6. "Obituary Mr Niels R W Nielsen". The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 July 1930. p. 15. Retrieved 3 October 2021 – via Trove.

 

New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Preceded byKenneth Mackay Member for Boorowa
1899–1904 		District abolished
Preceded byWilliam Affleck Member for Yass
1904–1913 		Succeeded byGreg McGirr
Political offices
Preceded bySamuel Wilkinson Moore Secretary for Lands
1910–1911 		Succeeded byFred Flowers
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