Rex Connor
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The Honourable Rex Connor |
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| Minister for Minerals and Energy | |
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In office 19 December 1972 – 14 October 1975 |
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| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | New title |
| Succeeded by | Ken Wriedt |
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Cunningham |
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In office 30 November 1963 – 22 August 1977 |
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| Preceded by | Victor Kearney |
| Succeeded by | Stewart West |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
26 January 1907 Wollongong, New South Wales |
| Died | 22 August 1977 (aged 70) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Children | Three sons |
| Occupation | Car dealer, farmer |
Reginald Francis Xavier "Rex" Connor (26 January 1907 – 22 August 1977), Australian politician, was a minister in the Whitlam government and promoted government investment to support national development. Surreptitious attempts to raise foreign loans led to his forced resignation and, indirectly, the fall of the Whitlam Government in 1975.
The journalist Paul Kelly wrote in his book November 1975: "It was the national interest that drove Rex Connor. He can be criticised for his naivety and poor judgement. But there is no charge against Connor's integrity... The Opposition implied in the lobbies that ministers were chasing personal gain. There is no evidence for this." Nevertheless, by the time Labor returned to office in 1983, Connor's economic nationalism and dreams of massive state investment in energy projects had been totally rejected.
Connor was born in Wollongong, New South Wales, where he lived all his life and which he represented in the New South Wales and Australian Parliaments. Descended from Irish Catholics (though not himself a practising Catholic in adulthood), he was educated at state schools, including Wollongong High School, of which he graduated as dux, despite contracting pneumonia in his final year.
Due to his father's death in 1925, he gave up his intention of becoming an analytical chemist and became an articled clerk. He qualified in law, but was twice rejected for registration as a solicitor, the result of his dismissal by his former employer. Instead he went into business as a car dealer and later took up farming. Despite these middle-class occupations he was a dedicated socialist. In 1931 he married Amelia Searl. From 1938 to 1945 he was an Alderman on the Wollongong City Council.
In 1940, when the NSW ALP was split into three factions, he contested the federal seat of Werriwa for the so-called "Hughes-Evans Labor Party", the left-wing faction which had split from the recently reunified ALP in NSW, led by William (Bill) McKell. Subsequently, some members of the State Labor Party joined the Communist Party of Australia, and some have been shown to have held "dual tickets" throughout the period. Nevertheless, when most of the Hughes-Evans faction were expelled in 1941, Connor remained in the ALP.
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