Philip Collier, Australian politician, 14th Premier of Western Australia (b. 1873)
Philip Collier (21 April 1873 – 18 October 1948) was an Australian politician who served as the 14th Premier of Western Australia from 1924 to 1930 and from 1933 to 1936. He was leader of the Labor Party from 1917 to 1936, and is Western Australia's longest-serving premier from that party.
Collier was born in Victoria and came to Western Australia to work in the mines. He became involved in the union movement on the Eastern Goldfields, and entered parliament at the 1905 state election, winning the seat of Boulder (which he retained for the rest of his life). In 1911, Collier became a minister in the government of John Scaddan. He replaced Scaddan as Labor leader in 1917, in the aftermath of the split over conscription, and became premier when Labor won the 1924 state election. Collier's government was returned to office three years later, but was defeated at the 1930 election. Nevertheless Collier continued to lead the state ALP, and regained the premiership after a Labor landslide in 1933, serving until his retirement in 1936.
As premier, Collier enjoyed a stability that had been absent from previous Labor administrations in Western Australia. His government was on good terms with trade unions, and its improvements to industrial arbitration laws have been credited with reducing the number of industrial disputes relative to other states. It also had various workers' rights enshrined in legislation, including a basic wage and a 40-hour week. Collier himself was a political moderate, and
borrowed policies from his predecessors in certain areas, notably rural development. Later writers have praised his statesmanship and his skilled handling of his opponents, both inside and outside of his party.