Andrew Inglis Clark (24 February 1848 – 14 November 1907) was an Australian founding father and co-author of the Australian Constitution; he was also an engineer, barrister, politician, electoral reformer and jurist. He initially qualified as an engineer, but he re-trained as a barrister to effectively fight for social causes which deeply concerned him. After a long political career, mostly spent as Attorney-General and briefly as Opposition Leader, he was appointed a Senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania. Despite being acknowledged as the leading expert on the Australian Constitution, he was never appointed to the High Court of Australia.

He popularised the Hare-Clark voting system, and introduced it to Tasmania. In addition Clark was a prolific author, though most of his writings were never published, rather they were circulated privately. Clark was also Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania. Throughout his life, Clark was a progressive. He championed the rights of workers to organise through trades unions, universal suffrage (including women's suffrage) and the rights to a fair trial – all issues which today we take for granted, but were so radical in the 1880s that he was described as a 'communist' by the Hobart Mercury. Less favourably, a contemporary, J.B. Walker, privately judged him an "eloquent, impressive, dignified ... doctrinaire politician ... wanting in practical ability".

Yet he also had a rich and warm home life. He is described as "never too busy to mend a toy for a child, and his wife once wrote on hearing of his imminent return from America: 'to celebrate your return I must do something or bust". After leaving school, he was apprenticed to his family's engineering business, becoming a qualified engineer, and finally its business manager. His father had established a highly successful engineering business, based on an iron foundry. The business was also involved with industrial design and construction of flour mills, water mills, coal mines and other substantial undertaking.

Early in his life, Clark developed a passion for justice and liberty. He joined the Minerva Club where he participated in debate on contemporary social issues. In 1874, he edited its journal Quadrilateral. As a 'young ardent republican', he was also a member of the American Club, where at the 1876 annual dinner, he declared "We have met here tonight in the name of the principles which were proclaimed by the founders of the Anglo-American Republic... and we do so because we believe those principles to be permanently applicable to the politics of the world".

In 1878 he married Grace Paterson (Ross) Clark, the daughter of local shipbuilder John Ross, with whom he had five sons and two daughters:

  • Carrel (1888) Clerk of Tasmanian Legislative Council
  • Ethel (1889)

One of the many mysteries of Clark's private life is the circumstances of his marriage. As the son of a prominent family, and a leading figure of his church who was marrying the daughter of a well-known businessman, his marriage might have been expected to be a major social event. Instead, they slipped away to Melbourne, where they were married in the presence of a few friends.

Political career

In 1878, Clark stood for election to the House of Assembly, despite his reputation as an extreme ultra-republican. He was attacked by the Hobart Mercury for "holding such very extreme ultra-republican, if not revolutionary, ideas" that his proper place should be among the 'Communists', and the Launceston Examiner as a "stranger from Hobart". He was elected, unopposed to the electorate of Norfolk Plains. His election was largely due to the influence of Thomas Reibey, a political power broker and a recent Premier.

Clark was the founder of the Southern Tasmania Political Reform Association, whose agenda included manhood suffrage, fixed term parliaments, and electoral reform. He also assisted with reframing the customs tariff.

In the 1882 election, Clark was defeated. He failed when he stood for election in 1884 (East Hobart) and 1886 (South Hobart). In 1887, Clark was re-elected, in a by-election as member for East Hobart. In 1888, he was re-elected as member for South Hobart and remained there until the seat was abolished in 1897. He was then the member for Hobart until he resigned upon his appointment to the Supreme Court in 1898.

In March 1888, he became Attorney General in the government of Sir Philip Fysh. Since the Premier was in the Legislative Council, Clark was responsible for introducing legislation into the Assembly. Over the next five years he shepherded through the lower house much progressive and humanitarian legislation. His goal was to break the power of property in Tasmanian politics. The legislation covered such diverse reforms as legalising trades unions, providing parliamentary salaries, preventing cruelty to animals, reforming laws on lunacy, trusteeship and companies, the custody of children and the protection of children from neglect and abuse. He also introduced laws to restrict the immigration of Chinese. Clark failed in his attempts to impose a land tax, introduce universal (including female) suffrage and centralise the police.

Clark was the most important 19th-century Attorney-General of Tasmania. His considerable drafting skills enabled him to modernise and simplify the law over a number of areas. He introduced a total of 228 bills into the Assembly. His best known achievement as Attorney-General was the introduction of proportional representation based on the Hare-Clark system of the single transferable vote. Clark had spoken about the problem, advocating the acquisition of the Company by the government as early as 1878. Instead of the Convention's proposal to compensate States' for their loss of tariff revenue subsequent to Federation by a guarantee of a share of Commonwealth revenue, he favoured the Commonwealth's assumption of States' debts. Despite the urgings of Federationists, Clark abstained from supporting the Federal cause in the subsequent campaign. A week before the 1898 referendum on Federation, he let it be known "It is not his intention to advise any elector on how to vote".

Hare–Clark electoral system

In 1896, after several failed attempts, Clark was able to get a system of proportional representation adopted by the Tasmanian Parliament, but it was to be only on a trial basis for both Hobart (to elect 6 MPs) and Launceston (to elect 4 MPs). The modified single transferable vote method, immediately known as the Hare–Clark system, was renewed annually until suspended in 1902. Clark died in 1907, just as permanent proportional representation struggled through Parliament and over a year before it was used for the first time throughout Tasmania at the general election in April 1909.

Clark was called to the bar in 1877. He soon gained a reputation as a criminal lawyer in a 'poisoning case', but went on to gain a large practice in civil and commercial law as well. He practised law both while in and out of parliament. During those periods when he was not serving as Attorney-General, he worked hard to build a successful practice. He failed to find his fortune in the law due to his generosity and refusal 'to accept anything beyond a reasonable and modest fee'. In 1887 he went into partnership with Matthew Wilkes Simmons.