Baker’s Brainchild: Sir Richard Chaffey Baker and the Foundations of the Australian Senate

Description

Sir Richard Baker’s role in the establishment of the government of Australia and as the Australian Senate’s first President (1901–06) was particularly significant.

Independently wealthy, Eton and Cambridge educated, and a lawyer, Baker was of a South Australian political family, and his career in South Australian politics was not without incident. The notoriously hot-headed Charles Cameron Kingston once challenged him to a duel. And they both rubbed shoulders and were instrumental in the creation of an Australian legislature.

Here, Rosemary Laing, the Senate’s 13th Clerk, recounts Baker’s life and career in politics, highlighting his contribution to the making of the Australian Constitution and his grand finale in the Senate, where he strove to ensure the Senate fulfilled its constitutional promise.
Baker’s pioneering approaches are apparent today in the operations of the Senate. His biography has been long awaited.