Australian Dictionary of Biography

Pat Morton and his wife, 1949

State Library of Queensland

Philip Henry Morton (1910–1999), alderman, politician, and businessman, was born on 28 October 1910 at Lismore, New South Wales, youngest of five children of New South Wales-born Arthur Richmond Morton, auctioneer and stock and station agent, and his Queensland-born wife Maria Emma, née Gaden. Philip, known as Pat, was born into a large political family from the Shoalhaven district of the New South Wales south coast. His father, who died when Pat was aged two, was an alderman on the Nowra and Lismore municipal councils, and three of his uncles sat in the State Legislative Assembly: Mark Fairles Morton held the seats of Shoalhaven (1901–04), Allowrie (1904–20), and Wollondilly (1922–25, 1928–30); Henry Douglas Morton was the member for Hastings and Macleay (1910–20); and Philip Henry Morton served as the representative for Shoalhaven (1889–98).

Active in the Lismore troop of the Boy Scouts’ Association, Morton left Lismore High School aged fourteen to work for a local solicitor. In 1925 he went to Sydney to work for Bradley Brothers Ltd which imported and retailed parts for motor vehicles, later rising to become its managing director. On 31 March 1937 he married Nance Maude Blanton (d. 1995) at St Mark’s Church of England, Darling Point. In December 1944 he was elected to the Mosman Municipal Council, and a year later he became mayor. As it had for his uncles before him, a bigger political challenge beckoned: State parliament. He joined the newly formed Liberal Party, won preselection for the Legislative Assembly seat of Mosman in 1946, and in 1947 defeated the sitting Independent member, Donald Peter Macdonald. Until 1951 he also continued to serve as a Mosman alderman.

In his maiden speech Morton made clear that his politics were informed by his experiences as a businessman and his strong beliefs in free enterprise. ‘Every encouragement,’ he said, ‘must be given to private enterprise to expand’ (NSW LA 1947, 132). While Labor kept Morton’s party in Opposition until 1965, this did not blunt his parliamentary ambitions. He unsuccessfully challenged the Opposition leader (Sir) Vernon Treatt on 4 May and 6 July 1954, and when Treatt resigned the following month, Morton again ran for the leadership. After Morton and Robin (Sir Robert) Askin tied the party room vote, Murray Robson became the compromise choice as leader. Factional infighting continued, and in September 1955 Robson was deposed and Morton became Opposition leader.

Morton led the Opposition to successive electoral defeats in 1956 and 1959. He came under increasing pressure, being criticised as only a part-time party leader who gave too much attention to his business affairs. Askin defeated him for the leadership in July 1959, and when the Opposition won government in 1965, Morton became minister for highways and minister for local government. He gave his loyalty to Askin, bore no grudges as a former leader, and embraced his portfolios. In 1967 he sacked Warringah Shire Council and dissolved Sydney City Council, the former because of a bribery scandal and the latter for a combination of political, administrative, and financial reasons. He called Sydney City Council a ‘dictatorship’ and claimed that ‘power politics plus—with a vengeance’ was ‘the order of the day’ (NSW LA 1967, 1331) within it. Morton defended his actions, saying he wanted Sydney to have ‘the financial strength necessary for the capital city of the State’ and ‘future good civic administration’ (NSW LA 1967, 1340). His critics, however, saw the sacking as a politically motivated business and financial act.

Free enterprise was a constant theme that underpinned Morton’s ministerial work and politics. On Morton’s retirement, John O’Hara in the Sydney Morning Herald would describe him as ‘a free enterpriser from way back’ and ‘a staunch apostle of the creed that the healthiest, most progressive society is the one which lets business get about its business with a minimum of controls’ (1972, 7). His support for the State Planning Authority saw the height of buildings increased, manifest in the Harry Seidler-designed MLC Centre that opened in 1978, then the highest building in the southern hemisphere. Its construction saw the demolition of the Theatre Royal despite protests and bans by the New South Wales Builders Labourers’ Federation. Proposals for extensive freeway systems, some inner-city suburbs to the ground, also brought controversy. When Morton supported what many developers saw as slum clearance of The Rocks and Woolloomooloo, industrial and community protests successfully thwarted the proposal.

Morton was ‘a solidly built man with a truculent jaw’ (Souter 1994, 255). While the Askin government retained government at the 1971 election, albeit with a reduced majority, he retired in June 1972. He became a trustee of the Zoological Parks Board of New South Wales (chairman 1976). Continuing his business interests, he was a director of Repco Ltd, the television parts company Sanyo-Guthrie and Co. (Australia) Pty Ltd, and the food producer Petersville Australia Pty Ltd. Survived by one daughter, Patricia, he died on 18 January 1999 at Mosman, and was cremated; his wife and another daughter, Margaret, had predeceased him. His funeral was held at St Luke’s Anglican Church, Mosman. A lookout at Lennox Point was named after him in 1977.