Robert Hastie
| Robert Hastie | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Leader of the Labour Party in Western Australia |
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In office 10 May 1901 – 8 July 1904 |
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| Preceded by | None (new position) |
| Succeeded by | Henry Daglish |
| Member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia |
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In office 24 April 1901 – 27 October 1905 |
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| Preceded by | None (new seat) |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Walker |
| Constituency | Kanowna |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
27 July 1861 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Died | 9 April 1914 (aged 52) Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia |
| Political party |
Labour (to 1905) Commonwealth Liberal (1910) |
Robert "Bob" Hastie (27 July 1861 – 9 April 1914) was an Australian politician who was the first parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in Western Australia. He was a member of the state's Legislative Assembly from 1901 to 1905.
Hastie was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and spent time in New Zealand and Victoria before arriving in Western Australia in 1895 during the gold rush. Prominent in the labour movement on the Eastern Goldfields, he entered parliament at the 1901 state election, and was elected party leader shortly after. Hastie was replaced as leader by Henry Daglish in July 1904, who became premier the following month. He served as a minister in Daglish's government, but was defeated for preselection at the early 1905 election. Hastie eventually left the Labour Party, and unsuccessfully stood for the Commonwealth Liberal Party at the 1910 federal election.
Hastie was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Christina (née Stewart) and William Hastie, his father being a British Army soldier. He studied at the Andersonian Institute in Glasgow, and then as a young man emigrated to New Zealand. He spent five years in the North Island, including a period prospecting in Thames (the site of an earlier gold rush). In 1890, Hastie moved to Victoria, where he spent another five years before coming to Western Australia. Settling in the Eastern Goldfields, he spent a short time prospecting in the Coolgardie area, and then moved to Boulder, where he spent a few years before moving on to Kanowna. On the goldfields, Hastie became involved with the union movement, and eventually became president of the local branch of the Amalgamated Workers' Association (AWA), an early general union. He was a frequent letter-writer to local newspapers, sometimes under a pseudonym, and was the organiser a weekly lecture series in Kanowna. A 1901 article in the Westralian Worker noted that Hastie had been "an active and leading member" in both the movement for federation and the Goldfields secession movement.
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