The Australian National Dictionary beta

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labour n. (Spelling variant: labor.)
1. As labor.

1 a. The wage-earning sector of the population, viewed with regard to its political interests. Often attrib.

1870 Age (Melbourne) 5 Nov. 2/5 In August last a labor convention was held at Cincinatti to consider the desirability of forming a political party that should be consecrated to ‘labor reform’.   1890 Age (Melbourne) 14 Aug. 4/6 If either of the great principles for which the labor organisations contend were to be threatened, the sympathy of the public would be with the men.   1898 Barrier Truth (Broken Hill) 10 Sept. 4/2 Owned by labor men, written and produced by labor men, this paper will fight the battle of labor… We should like to put nothing in it but labor news and labor articles.   1926 Werribee Shire Banner 2 Dec. 7/4 Labor organisers from the Melbourne Trades Hall have planned to address public meetings at Werribee every Friday evening until Christmas.   1964 Austral. Women’s Weekly (Sydney) 28 Oct. 12/2 The great bargaining strength of unions and other labor organisations in gaining the recent £1 a week rise in the basic wage.   1981 Sydney Morning Herald 27 Apr. 3/8 The BLF, along with other unions  ..  agree to work through the Labor Council with other unions to achieve a ‘no ticket, no start’ financial membership in the building industry.   2000 Age (Melbourne) 6 May (Saturday Extra) 5/2 The new generation generally has little time for labor organisations. Newcastle University research shows it does not distinguish between unions and employers, and sees both as power centres devoted to the interests of older people.   2015 Age (Melbourne) 25 May 8/2 ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said rapidly growing ‘liquid workforces’—where workers are not legally employees and do not have the right to organise and collectively bargain—must become a focus of the labor movement.



1 b. Usu. as Labor. Short for ‘Labor Party’, from 1918 for ‘Australian Labor Party’. Frequently attrib.

1891 Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) 30 Oct. 4/3 Mr Houghton, one of the managing committee of the labor party, spoke at Tenterfield last night. He said he was sorry that Mr Dibbs blundered in choosing his Ministry… Mr Dibbs would not know his fate until after the labor caucus was held.   1892 Age (Melbourne) 5 Mar. 6/7 Two of the labor candidates have now spoken out at Prahran, and we may congratulate them on having been reasonable in their tone.   1911 H.G. Turner First Decade Austral. Cwlth. 198 The Labor Caucus  ..  submitted the names of twenty-one candidates to an exhaustive ballot.   1922 Austral. Worker (Sydney) 26 Aug. 7 First Fat: ‘There seems to be no accounting for all those terrible murders.’ Second Ditto: ‘No, that's where Labor Governments come in handy. You could always put the blame on them!’   1926 G. Black Hist. N.S.W. Political Labor Party ii. 10 My Labor comrades adopted my head-covering, which afterwards was known widely as ‘the Labor Hat’.   1934 Manifesto (Austral. Labor Party Qld.) 6/1 Labor would  ..  lag behind the political constitution of the Commonwealth, and would correspond in its structure to the parochial state of things prevailing before Australian nationhood was achieved.   1948 H.W. Crittenden Rogues’ Paradise 11 The lower half under the ‘Labor’ banner is the more aggressive and supplies the positive pole of Australian politics.   1955 Sydney Morning Herald 14 July 2/8 Stout, then sulky and resentful, was merely striking out—almost aimlessly accusing Labor Premier Cain of running a government ‘not worth two bob’.   1964 Austral. (Sydney) 30 Dec. 6/7 For Calwell, Labor was always right.   1973 Age (Melbourne) 21 May 9/6 Labor’s rural rump calls the tune.   1983 Sydney Morning Herald 7 Sept. 9/2 N.S.W. provides an excellent example of how Labor can get on with the bush.   1993 P. Blazey Secret Diary of Jeffrey Kennett 47 Public servants, unionists, teachers, students, nurses who have been conned by union bosses, bludgers,  ..  ‘concerned clergy’, whingers, Warrandyte basket weavers, flat earthers—the usual Labor rent-a-crowd.   2001 M. Warby Ellis Unplugged 129 Journalist Claire Harvey labelled him a ‘professional grump and theatrical Labor fringe-dweller’.   2004 Sunday Tel. (Sydney) 22 Feb. (Escape Suppl.) 22/1 The island became a weekend hideout for an eclectic mix of artists, ‘Labor luvvies’, small business wannabes, architects, solicitors, and frock designers.   2014 Austral. Financial Rev. (Sydney) 1 Feb. 55/4 Shorten, whose leadership is near bulletproof thanks to the new rules bequeathed by Rudd, has already told colleagues he will cop the blame if Labor loses Griffith, and take the credit if it wins.


2. Usu. as labour. Obs.

2 a. Used attrib. as a euphemism for Kanaka 1.

1872 Australasian (Melbourne) 5 Oct. 434/1 Dr Murray, of ‘labour-collecting’ fame, gets off very well indeed.   1892 J.G. Paton Slavery under British Flag 4 Your last Royal Commission brought before the world such a record of kidnapping and crime in one year, by the witnesses of all the six labour vessels whose conduct it enquired into.   1895 Handbk. of Excursions (Australasian Assoc. Advancement of Sci.) 7 Four vessels are engaged in the Bundaberg labour trade.   1898 Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Mar. 14/3 T’other day at Bundaberg (Q.) the cook of a labor-vessel took up his headquarters.



2 b. Used attrib. with reference to communities established to provide rural work for the unemployed.

1893 Act (N.S.W.) 56 Vict. no. 34, An Act to establish and regulate Labour Settlements on Crown Lands.   1894 Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Nov. 6/2 The idea of founding labour settlements was conceived by city politicians who had a vague conviction that agriculture was an instinct.   1898 M. Davitt Life & Progress 73 The traveller in South Australia  ..  should pay a visit to the labour settlements on the Murray River… These Labour Villages originated in an unemployed agitation in Adelaide and district in the winter of 1893.   1898 M. Davitt Life & Progress 152 Under the Act of 1893 land  ..  can be appropriated for purposes of homestead associations, Labour colonies, and village settlements.   1899 Austral. Tit-Bits (Sydney) 11 Mar. 68/1 Mr William Squire, the manager of Labour Colony at Leongatha Victoria, has been twice suspended.   1917 N.S.W. Parl. Debates 2nd Ser. LXIX. 1930 The object of this bill is to put the finishing touch to two unfortunate settlements which were started in the year 1893 as co-operative labour settlements.   1924 S.H. Roberts Hist. Austral. Land Settlement 330 At the same time ‘labour colonies’ were set up for a totally different class of persons, the ‘absolutely destitute’.