Several failed attempts were made to extend the franchise to women in Queensland between 1890 and 1904 before success was finally achieved by the passing of the Elections Acts Amendment Act in early 1905. They must be seen in the context of the prevailing conditions in the new colony, and in the context of the major stakeholders of the day.

When Queen Victoria signed the Order-in-Council of 6 June 1859 to excise the northern two-thirds of New South Wales to form the new colony of Queensland, the men over twenty-one who lived up there and earlier that year had voted for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, would probably have assumed they would remain enfranchised. Unfortunately, Queen Victoria had signed the Order of Separation prior to NSW granting manhood suffrage, and when the first Queensland election was held in April and May of 1860 a NSW roll from which about a third of the names had been removed was used. Accordingly, a large section of the males in the new colony were disenfranchised.

The new colony repealed many of the provisions of the 1858 New South Wales electoral legislation pertaining to the collection of electoral lists, and enacted fairly stringent conditions that had to be met before your name could be entered on the voter's roll. You had to be a man of twenty-one years, a natural born or naturalized subject of Her Majesty or legally made a denizen of Queensland, and there were various property qualifications.

Thus, instead of manhood suffrage for all males over twenty-one, as was the case in South Australia (1856), Victoria (1857) and New South Wales (1858), the new colony adopted a system designed to favour the conservative pastoral interests. In fact, the new colony at that time could be fairly described as Australia's equivalent of the American Wild West, controlled by wealthy pastoralists. Like the Wild West there were vast lands to be opened up, native inhabitants to oppress, and gold to be found. The Wild West differed in one important aspect, apart from everybody carrying guns, in that it had already enfranchised its women.

It wasn't until 1872 that there was anything remotely resembling manhood suffrage in Queensland. The six months residency qualification was retained, but property qualifications were relaxed in as much as you could now register if your leasehold property only had eighteen months to run, or if you had been in possession of leasehold property for eighteen months instead of the previous three years requirement. Also the maximum vote that could be cast by an individual in the same electorate was now one. However, this new legislation also introduced a restriction that did not exist before: "Provided also that no aboriginal native of China or of the South Sea Islands or of New Holland shall be entitled to vote except under a property qualification." Presumably this measure was introduced to ensure that the Chinese on the goldfields in the 1870s, and the Kanakas imported to work in the cane fields were not enfranchised.

The retention of the six months provision continued to disadvantage the mostly single male itinerant workers who never stayed in a place long enough to fulfil the residency requirement. A significant sector of the over twenty-one male population was disenfranchised because they were unable to fulfill the six months residency qualification, or own or lease property. Rich men could make multiple registrations to vote if they owned multiple property. The voting system, known as plural voting, allowed a man to vote in any electorate in which he held property. A wealthy pastoralist could cast multiple votes at a single election and, in theory, also buy votes by sub-dividing his land and registering the various lots in the names of friends and supporters who would then presumably vote for him.

Needless to say there were many even in the 1890s who were still opposed to electoral reform. In 1895 John Cameron was adamant that: 'I have never believed in the principle of one man one vote, and nothing will convince me that all men should have equal voting rights.' In 1897 William Armstrong expressed a similar view: 'The country should recognize thrift by allowing a property vote…one man one vote will lead to a preponderating influence of the towns over the country.' Other members in that debate expressed the same sentiments: 'If the country is to be wisely and judiciously governed, it must be governed by the best intellects that we have, and not by the unthinking mob.' 'I do not believe, for instance, that a man who is idle, dissolute, and disaffected, and who carries all his belongings under his hat, is the equal of a man who by his industry, thrift, and temperate habits has made a home for himself.'

Two years later, in 1899, the Home Secretary bemoaned the fact that: 'Now, the leading principle of this Bill is, of course, one man one vote. I little thought that it would ever fall to my lot to be the one to introduce a Bill of this sort into the Assembly.'

Parliamentary Politics
Although there were two houses of parliament those qualified to vote could only do so for the Legislative Assembly which was elected for five years and initially comprised twenty-six members drawn from sixteen electorates. Three year parliaments were introduced in 1890, by which time there were sixty electorates returning seventy-two members. The members of the Legislative Council were appointed for life, and it remained an appointed house until its abolition in 1922.

In theory all those qualified to vote could also stand for parliament but, as MPs did not receive expenses until 1886 and were not paid until 1889, the system ensured that only wealthy men could afford to become politicians. Members of the Legislative Council, however, received neither salary nor expenses, although they did get free railway passes. Voting in Queensland was first past the post from 1860-1892 when 'contingent' (optional preferential) voting was introduced, and by 'secret ballot'. In 1914 Queensland became the first state to introduce compulsory registration and voting.

The new colony's discriminatory voting system was one of the causes of the enormous political turmoil and instability that lasted for some fifty years. Queensland produced Australia's most radical and militant labour movement which resulted in the formation of the Trades and Labour Council in 1885, and eventually the Labor Party in 1891.

Owing to the lack of an entrenched party system, allegiances changed, and governments came and went; even during the fifteen years (1890-1905) of the women's suffrage campaign Queensland had seven changes of governor, with six different individuals occupying that position. Even then they consisted of only three full governors, plus two lieutenant-governors, one lieutenant-governor administering, and one administrator. In the same period there were nine premiers, three changes of speakers in the lower house and two different presidents of the Legislative Council. In addition, there were five state general elections, two federal general elections, one state referendum, a Royal Commission, three Constitutional Conventions, the great shearers' strike of 1891, and the depression of 1892.

Clearly then every government of the day considered it had more important things to worry about than votes for women, and herein lay part of the problem because most of the legislation introduced into the parliament to effect this reform was private members' Bills. These are notoriously difficult to steer through two houses of parliament unless they have the support of the government and, in any case, most of the Bills were encumbered by other issues.

The Labor Party's position was quite clear, it supported votes for women, but its first priority was the abolition of the plural vote. It is difficult to say whether the non-Labor parties were as implacably opposed to giving women the vote as they were to the abolition of the plural vote because most of the Bills contained both issues, but they did have their share of powerful misogynists. These included the Colonial Secretary/Home Secretary Horace Tozer (MP 1871, 1888-98) who had recommended shooting down the striking shearers in 1891; and Premiers Nelson (MP 1883-1906) who later as governor must have found it particularly galling to give assent to the successful 1905 franchise bill; Byrnes who maintained it was against the wish of women to have the vote thrust upon them; Dickson who made political mileage by tying the plural vote into the federation referendum, then promised a referendum about women's suffrage, but died in office before his word could be tested; and Philp who appears to have been totally duplicitous with respect to women's suffrage, and only offered the so-called 'baby vote'.

The Struggle for Votes for Women
Besides the gradual spread of the women's franchise in other parts of Australia, Queensland women had a few other things going in their favour, not least of which was the steady increase in the number of Labor MPs in the Queensland Parliament as the suffrage campaign progressed, plus the fact that Queensland women would vote in the 1903 federal election. The upsurge in Labor numbers began with the election of the first endorsed Labor candidate, strike leader and shearer, Tommy Ryan, who became the MLA for Barcoo at a by-election in 1892.

The idea of women's suffrage was first put before the Queensland Parliament in 1870 by Premier Charles Lilley during a debate on electoral reform. He lost office the same year but remained a staunch supporter of the enfranchisement of women. In 1892 William Taylor made the suggestion, but did not move a motion, that propertied women should be added to the electoral roll. The first serious attempt at reform was made by Richard Hyne with a private member's Bill on 29 July 1890. This Bill was quite clear and unencumbered, and gave women the vote under the same conditions as men. It was a matter of justice: they paid taxes without representation, and they had to obey laws they had no say in formulating, Hyne pointed out. Although the bill was shelved and no vote was taken, the issue had been given an airing.

The next attempts occurred in 1894 when Charles Powers and Thomas Glassey (leader of the Legislative Assembly's sixteen Labor MPs) introduced separate private member's Bills to enfranchise women. The Powers Bill was encumbered by including the abolition of plural voting, and the Glassey Bill by including all itinerant workers. The Glassey Bill stated it applied to all natural-bom or naturalised British over the age of twenty-one, but excluded Aboriginal natives of Australia, or those from Japan, China, India or parts of Asia, Africa, South Seas or Oceania.

Plural voting was very dear to the non-Labor side of politics as it was one of the bases of its power, and the proposals in the Glassey Bill for enfranchising itinerants were clearly unworkable. Inevitably both Bills failed to gain enough support in the Legislative Assembly. The following year they both tried again. This time Powers dropped women and concentrated on the plural vote, but again both Bills came to naught.

A referendum to decide whether Queensland would become part of a federated Australia was held on 2 September 1899, and was passed by a small majority of about 7000. The Premier, James Dickson, an opponent of women's suffrage, promised to abolish plural voting if the referendum was passed, but was silent with respect to the women's vote. A one-man-one-vote bill was drafted, but his government fell before it went before parliament. The wording of the bill had upset the women's suffrage organizations, and the WCTU sent a deputation to Dickson asking that it be changed to one-adult-one-vote.

The Dickson ministry was succeeded by the world's first Labor government in 1899. It was led by Anderson Dawson, but only survived for one week when it was replaced by the regrouped non-Labor forces under Premier Robert Philp. During his premiership a government Bill came before the house that will probably go down in history as one of the silliest pieces of legislation ever placed before an Australian parliament. Introduced by the Home Secretary, Justin Foxton, it included one-adult-one-vote and enfranchised the police force, but the Bill also prescribed that men would in fact get two votes if they had two or more children who were born in 'lawful wedlock' and in Queensland. The local press, and even the overseas press, had a field day with the so-called 'baby vote'. The Rockhampton Bulletin reported: 'Notwithstanding all the silly things the present government have done we do not like to think they seriously anticipate placing such a farcical law on the statute book…As we have said, the principle of the measure is rotten, the details are a burlesque, and it is an elaborate legislative joke…'
Hansard paints a vivid picture of the parliamentary debate and, even though it was a government Bill, it was shelved after it passed the second reading. One MLA evoked a scene whereby men would turn up at the polling booth with their two children, to show they were entitled to two votes; another asserted that it was phallic worship. Someone interjected that it was the law of procreation, one member branded it the physical capability vote, and another the stud vote.

The Philp government was returned in the March 1902 general election, and shortly thereafter William Kidston tabled a private member's Bill to enfranchise women. Once again it failed, and the government only allowed a short time for debate. That same month, a deputation from WEFA, WSL and the WCTU saw Philp and demanded a sensible government Bill to enfranchise women. But despite his promises they were to be disappointed.

Appendix:
· In possession of a freehold estate to the value of 100 pounds sterling for at least six calendar months, or
· Being a householder occupying any house, warehouse, counting-house, office, shop or other building of the clear annual value of ten pounds sterling, and having occupied the same for six calendar months, or
· Having a leasehold estate to the value of ten pounds sterling per annum held upon a lease which at the time of registration [on the voters roll] has not less than three years to run, or
· Been in possession of a leasehold estate for three years or more, of the aforesaid value, or
· Holding a government license to depasture [ie. graze cattle] lands, or
· Having a salary of 100 pounds a year and having enjoyed the same for six calendar months, or
· Being the occupant of any room or lodging and paying for his board and lodging forty pounds a year or for his lodging only at the rate of ten pounds a year and having occupied the same room or lodging for six calendar months.
Those specifically exclude from voting included:
· Those of unsound mind.
· Anyone in receipt of aid from a charitable institution.
· Those who had been attainted or convicted of treason, felony or other infamous offence unless pardoned or having completed their sentence.
· Persons in the military service or the police force.
· Clerks of Petty Sessions.
· Paid police magistrates.

For the text with complete references, read John McCulloch's "The Struggle for Women's Suffrage in Queensland" here