Malcolm Scott
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The Honourable Malcolm Scott |
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|---|---|
| Senator for Western Australia | |
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In office 22 February 1950 – 30 June 1971 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
11 May 1911 Bridgetown, Western Australia, Australia |
| Died | 31 May 1989 (aged 78) Booragoon, Western Australia, Australia |
| Political party | Liberal |
Malcolm Fox Scott (11 May 1911 – 31 May 1989) was an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1950 to 1971, representing the Liberal Party. He served as a minister in the Gorton Government from 1968 to 1969. Scott was a farmer before entering politics.
Scott was born in Bridgetown, Western Australia, to Ada Margaretta (née Fox) and Thomas Scott. His father was an immigrant from Scotland. Scott was raised on his father's farm and began his education at the local state school. He went on to Bunbury High School for one year, and then boarded at Scotch College, Perth. After finishing school, Scott returned to Bridgetown to help run the family farm, and eventually took it over completely. He also had a share in a pastoral lease in the Kimberley, as well as interests in a pearling company that operated six luggers out of Broome. Scott was elected to the Bridgetown Road Board in 1939, and served as chairman from 1946 to 1950.
Scott was briefly a member of the Labor Party in the 1940s. He left the party after Ben Chifley announced his intention to nationalise the banking sector, and subsequently joined the Liberal Party. Scott contested the preselection process for the Division of Forrest prior to the 1949 federal election, but lost to Gordon Freeth. He was instead endorsed as a senate candidate, and was elected in the fourth position on a combined Liberal–Country ticket. As a backbencher, Scott had a keen interest in national development, particularly in North-West Australia. He toured the region in 1958 with Robert Menzies and Bill Spooner, and was an advocate of the Ord River Scheme. Scott was a proponent of centralisation (an unpopular view amongst many of his constituents) and suggested that the Kimberley should be transferred from Western Australia to the Northern Territory so it could be under federal control.
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