Editing Billy Hughes (section)

==Early political career==
{{see also|Electoral history of Billy Hughes}}
In Balmain, Hughes became a [[Georgist]], a street-corner speaker, president<ref>Laurent, John. ''Henry George's legacy in economic thought''. Cheltenham, UK Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Pub, 2005.</ref> of the Balmain [[Single Tax League]], and joined the [[Australian Socialist League]]. He was an organiser with the [[Australian Workers' Union]] and may have already joined the newly formed Labor Party.<ref name=adb>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |first=L.F.|last=Fitzhardinge |title=Hughes, William Morris (Billy) (1862–1952) |id2=hughes-william-morris-billy-6761 |access-date=2022-08-05}}</ref> In 1894, Hughes spent eight months in central New South Wales organising for the [[Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australasia]] and then won the [[Electoral district of Sydney-Lang]] of the [[New South Wales Legislative Assembly]] by 105 votes.<ref name=adb/><ref>{{cite NSW Parliament |title=Mr William Morris Hughes (1862–1952) |id=1110 |former=Yes |access-date=11 May 2019}}</ref>

While in Parliament he became secretary of the Wharf Labourer's Union. In 1900 he founded and became first national president of the Waterside Workers' Union. During this period Hughes studied law, and was admitted as a barrister in 1903. Unlike most Labor men, he was a strong supporter of [[Federation of Australia|Federation]]{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} and [[Georgism]].<ref>Bastian, Peter (2009). Andrew Fisher: An Underestimated Man. Sydney, N.S.W: UNSW Press. p. 110. {{ISBN|1742230040}}.</ref>

[[File:Billy Hughes 1908.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Hughes in 1908]]

In 1901 Hughes was elected to the first federal Parliament as Labor MP for the [[Division of West Sydney]]. He opposed the [[Barton government]]'s proposals for a small professional army and instead advocated compulsory universal training.<ref name=adb/> In 1903, he was [[Call to the Bar|admitted to the bar]] after several years part-time study. He became a [[King's Counsel]] (KC) in 1909. 
[[File:Labor 1901b.jpg|thumb|right|340px|Group photograph of all Federal Labour Party MPs elected at the inaugural [[1901 Australian federal election|1901 election]], including [[Chris Watson]], [[Andrew Fisher]], Hughes, and [[Frank Tudor]]]]

In 1911, he married [[Mary Hughes|Mary Campbell]].<ref>{{cite web|title=William Morris Hughes – Australia's Prime Ministers|publisher=[[National Archives of Australia]]|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/hughes|access-date=10 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122030211/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/hughes/|archive-date=22 January 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> He was Minister for External Affairs in [[Chris Watson]]'s first Labor government. He was Attorney-General in [[Andrew Fisher]]'s three Labor governments in 1908–09, 1910–13 and 1914–15.<ref name=adb/>

In 1913, at the foundation ceremony of [[Canberra]] as the capital of Australia, Hughes gave a speech proclaiming that the country was obtained via the elimination of the indigenous population. "We were destined to have our own way from the beginning..[and]..killed everybody else to get it," Hughes said, adding that "the first historic event in the history of the Commonwealth we are engaged in today [is] without the slightest trace of that race we have banished from the face of the earth." But he warned that "we must not be too proud lest we should, too, in time disappear."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15404648 |title=HONOURING THE STATES. |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |issue=23,454 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=13 March 1913 |access-date=26 October 2017 |page=10 |via=Trove}}</ref>

His abrasive manner (his chronic [[dyspepsia]] was thought to contribute to his volatile temperament) made his colleagues reluctant to have him as Leader. His on-going feud with [[King O'Malley]], a fellow Labor minister, was a prominent example of his combative style.
Hughes was also the club patron for the Glebe Rugby League team in the debut year of Rugby League in Australia, in 1908.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} Hughes was one of a number of prominent Labor politicians who were aligned with the Rugby League movement in Sydney in 1908.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} Rugby League was borne out of a player movement against the Metropolitan Rugby Union who refused to compensate players for downtime from their jobs due to injuries sustained playing Rugby Union. Labor politicians aligned themselves with the new code as it was seen as a strong social standpoint, politically, and it was an enthusiastic professional game, which made the politicians themselves appear in a similar vein, in their opinions anyway.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}