government and install William Lyne as Premier. In 1900, while a serving state MP, he was elected president of the Australian Labour Federation, in which capacity he was involved in settling several industrial disputes. Federal politics At the inaugural 1901 federal election following Federation, Watkins switched to federal politics, winning the Australian House of Representatives seat of Newcastle for Labor and easily defeating Free Trade Party candidate Owen Gilbert. In 1902–04, Watkins was a member of the Royal Commission on the Bonuses for Manufactures Bill, which investigated the practicality of beginning iron works in Australia and possible industry incentives. In 1910, he was chairman of a parliamentary that visited the Territory of Papua to investigate issues around cheap imported labour and recommended that imported labour in Papua cease and local Papuan workers be employed instead. In 1916, he was chairman of the Australian section of the Empire War Delegation that visited England along with representatives of other Commonwealth dominions, and toured the Western Front. Watkins was never appointed to ministerial office, but was party whip in both government and opposition from 1909 to 1914 and secretary of the parliamentary party from 1908 to 1916. He was temporary chairman of committees from 1920 to 1928. Watkins sided with Prime Minister James Scullin in the 1931 Labor split which saw the New South Wales branch expelled from the federal party and most of the New South Wales MPs sit separately in federal parliament as the Australian Labor Party (NSW) (Lang Labor); he remained in the federal Labor caucus and was expelled from the state branch as a result. He was bitterly opposed by Lang Labor candidates at his last two elections in 1931 and 1934 as a consequence of the split. Watkins died of cancer at the Newcastle Mater Misericordiae Hospital on 8 April 1935 while still a sitting MP, aged 69. He was granted a state funeral and was buried at Sandgate Cemetery. He had been an MP for over forty years of continuous service which he remained undefeated. He left an estate of £2,211. His second son, David Oliver Watkins, stood for his seat in parliament at the resulting by-election, which he won on a reduced margin and held for 23 years. He married Marion Alice (née Arthur) with Wesleyan forms on 30 July 1890. She predeceased him in 1933. They had three daughters and five sons. References 1865 births