Edward Granville Theodore -20th Premier of Queensland, Australia

Basil (1884-1950), originally surnamed Teodorescu, was by father, Romanian.
Premier, Federal treasurer and company director, was the 20th Premier of Queensland, Australia.

With others he formed in 1907 the Amalgamated Workers Association of North Queensland, becoming at 22 its first secretary. Helped by William McCormack, who was to remain a close friend, he built the union into a broad-based and militant organization whose major achievements included the absorption of the sugar workers in 1910, victory in the sugar strike of 1911 and amalgamation in 1913 with the Australian Workers' Union, of which Theodore became State president.

Believing that workers' interests—conceived as improvement in job opportunities, wages and hours, and the exclusion of 'alien' labour—could not be served effectively by industrial action alone, Theodore had early affiliated the A.W.A. with the Labor Party, had subsequently thrown the resources of the A.W.U. behind that organization, and had embarked upon a political career. In October 1909 he won the Queensland Legislative Assembly seat of Woothakata (from 1912 Chillagoe) for Labor.

Theodore's rise was swift. In 1912, when Tom Ryan was elected leader of the parliamentary party, he became deputy leader, and, on Labor taking office in June 1915, deputy premier, treasurer and secretary for public works. In October 1919, when Ryan resigned to enter Federal politics, Theodore became premier.

During 1931 Theodore faced the greatest economic crisis in Australian history. The government imported an advisor from the Bank of England, Dr Otto Niemeyer, who recommended an "orthodox" solution, including sharp reductions in government spending such as pensions and unemployment benefits. The radical Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, on the other hand, campaigned for the repudiation of Australia's debt to bond-holders in London.

Theodore rejected both these alternatives and proposed instead an expansion of credit to farmers and small business, through the issue of "fiduciary notes" which could be redeemed after the Depression. His Fiduciary Notes Bill was denounced as financially unsound by orthodox economists and the banks, and was eventually defeated in the Senate. Theodore has been described as a visionary proto-Keynesian for this proposal, although it cannot be known what effect his measures would have had on the Depression had the bill been passed.