John Daniel FitzGerald (11 June 1862 – 4 July 1922) was a politician, union official, journalist and barrister in New South Wales, Australia. Early life Jack FitzGerald was born in Shellharbour to schoolteacher John Daniel FitzGerald and Mary Ann Cullen. He attended Shellharbour Public School, Fort Street Public School and St Mary's Cathedral School in Sydney before being apprenticed as a compositor in Bathurst. A founding member of the New South Wales Typographical Association, he served as its president from 1887 to 1888. He was elected to the executive of the Trades and Labor Council. He supported maritime workers in the 1890 strike, paying his own way to travel to England to raise support for the strikers. He returned to Sydney where he was one of the founders of the Labor Electoral League, which became the Labor party. He would later write a book about the origins and rise of the party. Legislative Assembly In 1891 FitzGerald stood for Legislative Assembly as a Labor candidate for the 4 member district of West Sydney. He was elected first of the 4 Labour candidates, with the party winning 35 seats, the first Labour candidates elected in the Australasian colonies. Labor took a significant number of votes and seats from the 2 previous major parties in the assembly, which were divided on fiscal lines, the and parties, giving Labour the balance of power. He was on the steering committee of 5 which led Labor at the time, along with George Black, Joseph Cook, Thomas Houghton and William Sharp. With poor party organisation, the caucus split almost from the day of its first meeting. The fiscal question of free trade or tariff protection was the basis of the division between the parties and Labour was divided as to which was in the best interests of its members. Fitzgerald and Sharp supported protection while Cook and Houghton supported free trade. Black's pragmatic policy of "support in return for concessions" saw Labour support the Free Trade government of Sir Henry Parkes until October 1891, switching support to the Protectionist government of Sir George Dibbs. In response to the 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike, the strike leaders were arrested for conspiracy on the direction of the government and police were used to support the mines re-opening using strike-breakers. George Reid, the leader of the Free Trade party moved a censure motion against the Dibbs government. Labour unsuccessfully