Henry Bournes Higgins (b. 30 June 1851, d. 13 January 1929)

Join the rising chorus to make 30 June "Higgins Day" - a public holiday for Higgins residents to stop, reflect and celebrate the birth of the great H.B. Higgins.

A politician and judge, H.B. Higgins, came to Australia from Ireland with his family in 1870, and is remembered as a great friend of the labour movement, the Irish-Australian community and liberal and progressive causes generally.

As an MLA in Victoria in the 1890's H.B. spoke out on issues such as greater protection for workers, government investment in industry, and votes for women. He was part of the convention that wrote the Australian Constitution, personally ensuring that it contained a guarantee of religious freedom, and also a provision giving the Commonwealth the power to arbitrate industrial disputes. He was also an anti-war activist.

In 1901, when federation under the new constitution came into effect, H.B. was elected to the first House of Representatives for the working-class electorate of Northern Melbourne. He stood as a Protectionist, but the Labor Party did not oppose him, regarding him as a supporter of the labour movement. In fact, in 1904 he was offered the post of Attorney-General in the first federal Labor government. He is the only person to have held office in a Federal Labor government without being a member of the Labor Party.

In 1906 he became Justice of the High Court of Australia (some say this was to get him out of politics because he was such a trouble maker!). In 1907 he was also appointed President of the newly created Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, created to arbitrate disputes between trades unions and employers, something H.B. had long advocated. He continued to support the labour movement, although he was strongly opposed to militant unions who abused the strike weapon and ignored his rulings.

In 1908 H.B. delivered a judgment which became famous in Australian history, known as the "Harvester Judgement". The case involved one of Australia's largest employers, Hugh McKay, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery. H.B. ruled that Mackay was obliged to pay his employees a wage that guaranteed them a standard of living which was reasonable for "a human being in a civilised community," regardless of his capacity to pay. This gave rise to the legal requirement for a basic wage, which dominated Australian economic life for the next 80 years.*

June 30 - Henry Higgins' Birthday

We've been inundated with emails from people expressing their support to make 30 June a public holiday for Higgins residents. Thanks everyone, and keep the emails coming. If we keep the pressure on we might just get it legislated. Why not also write to Mr Stanhope too! Being June, the month of the great man's birth, we take a look at some of the things that have been named in honour of Henry Higgins...

Missy Higgins, the singer formerly known as Rachel Smith... Searching for a more catchy stage name, she chose to honour the great man after doing an assignment on him for Year 9 history.	Jonathon Higgins, the butler from Magnum PI... Originally to be called Jonathon Scullin, the actor insisted his character's name be changed (for obvious reasons).
The Higgins Boat - the boat credited with winning World War 2 - was named after the great man. The Higgins Boat could travel on water AND land. So could Henry apparently.	Henry Higgins, from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (and My Fair Lady), was originally intended to be a great socialist like his namesake; a man who stood up for equality and education for all. The misogynistic snobby character has been attributed to typographical errors and a bad case of Chinese whispers.
The Higgins Mouse - a long-tailed jumping mouse and the ONLY mouse endemic to Tasmania. The man who first identified it was so enamored by Higgins after visiting his aunt one summer holidays he named the mouse after our suburb.	And …..it is rumoured that Glenn Shorrock's mother had her baby induced so that he be born on Henry's birthday, in the hope that he would grow up to be just like the great man.

Please note; Peter Costello, the member for the electorate of Higgins in Victoria, has nothing to do with our suburb at all….

As a birthday treat, why not download your very own cutout Henry Higgins dressup doll.