People Australia

Jack Kane, by Leslie Woodhead, 1972

National Library of Australia, 45157115

John Thomas (Jack) Kane (1908-1988) miner, haulage contractor, trade union official and Australian senator

Birth: 23 July 1908 at Burraga, New South Wales, son of Cornelius Kane (1870-1924), an engine driver born at Melbourne, Victoria, and Kate, née William (1884-1971), born at Goulburn, NSW. Marriage: 24 March 1928 at St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Lithgow, to Rose Emily Martin (1909-1998), born at Lithgow. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 27 October 1988 at St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst, Sydney; usual residence Alfred Street, Ramsgate. Religion: Catholic. 

• Educated at St Patrick’s School, Lithgow. Worked as a miner, joined the Miners’ Federation and in 1929 the Australian Labor Party.
• Moved to Sydney in 1942 and was a haulage contractor. He was vice-president of the Transport Workers’ Union in 1952-1956.
• In 1953 he was appointed assistant general secretary of the NSW branch of the ALP and in 1956 organising secretary of ALP Industrial Groups.
• Kane was appointed general secretary of the NSW branch of the Democratic Labor Party at its formation in 1956 and federal secretary of the DLP from 1957. He was personal secretary to Senator Vince Gair.
• Having unsuccessfully contested elections as a DLP candidate to the Senate in 1958, 1961, 1964, and 1967, and the seat of Evans in 1963, he was elected to the Australian Senate in November 1970. He was defeated in the double dissolution of parliament in May 1974.
• Cause of death: congestive cardiac failure (2 weeks), ischaemic heart disease (years), coronary atherosclerosis (years), pneumonia (5 days), multiple myeloma (6 months) and diabetes mellitus (years).
• His autobiography Exploding the Myths was published after his death. 

Sources
Joan Rydon (ed), A biographical register of the Commonwealth Parliament 1901-1972 (ANU Press, 1975).