Andrew Dawson (16 July 1863 – 20 July 1910), usually known as Anderson Dawson, was an Australian politician, the Premier of Queensland for one week (1–7 December) in 1899. This short-lived premiership was the first Australian Labor Party government and the first parliamentary labour ministry anywhere in the world. Early life Dawson was born on 16 July 1863 at Rockhampton, Queensland, the son of Anderson Dawson and his wife Jane (née Smith). When he was six, his mother died in a fire, and Dawson was placed in Diamantina orphanage in Brisbane. His aunt, Mary Ann Park, then retrieved Dawson and took him to live with her family in Redbank. He later moved with the family to Gympie. He began work as a miner at Charters Towers, in 1887 married the Irish widow Caroline Ryan, née Quinn, and later was elected first president of the Miners' Union. Dawson was originally attracted to politics by the Irish Home Rule question and in 1890 emerged as a political pamphleteer when he published The Case Stated, "an able plea for the creation of an Australian republic." The pamphlet was freely available in Charters Towers, both a trade unionist and a republican stronghold. Throughout 1890, Dawson was closely involved in the running of the Australasian Republican Association (ARA) and in February 1891 was elected the ARA’s second president. Dawson was also president, and later organiser, of the district council of the Australian Labour Federation (ALF). During the Queensland shearers’ strike, he was appointed chairman of the Queensland provincial council of the ALF, and was public in his support of socialism. He took up journalism and for a time was editor of the local newspaper, the radical The Charters Towers Eagle. He was also elected to the Local Council in Charters Towers. Colonial politics Dawson entered politics at the 1893 election, as one of the two Labor candidates for Charters Towers in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. He won the seat, and retained it at the 1896 and 1899 elections. Dawson was inspired by Marxist economics, and performed speeches to the Social Democratic Federation on Marx and issues surrounding surplus labour. When the government of James Dickson resigned on 1 December 1899, Dawson formed a ministry. Although it was defeated as soon as the Legislative Assembly next met, it nevertheless became the first socialist or Labour Party government in the world. This remains one of the