George Cann

George Cann (30 May 1871 – 18 October 1948) was an Australian miner and politician in the Parliaments of Australia and New South Wales.

Cann was born at Shankhouse, Cramlington, Northumberland, England, educated at Cramlington National School and became a coalminer at eleven. He married Catherine Roberts in 1890 and they had one daughter and one son. They migrated to New South Wales in 1900 and Cann worked as a miner near Lithgow and became involved in the Western Miners' Association. He served in the 30th Battalion of the first Australian Imperial Force from March 1916 until January 1918.

Political career

Cann won the Australian House of Representatives seat of Nepean at the 1910 election for the Australian Labor Party. He was defeated at the 1913 election. That year he unsuccessfully constested the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Upper Hunter. In 1914, he won the seat of Canterbury and held it to 1920, when it was absorbed into the new multi-member seat of St George; he was one of the members for St George until the abolition of proportional representation in 1927. He was Secretary for Mines and Minister for Labour and Industry from April 1920 to October 1921, when he became Secretary for Mines and Minister for Local Government until the defeat of the James Dooley government in December 1921. He was not reappointed when Dooley regained power some hours later. He became Minister for Local Government and Minister for Public Health in Jack Lang's first ministry in June 1925. He held the Local Government portfolio until March 1926 and Public Health until May 1927. He opposed Lang's leadership and as a result lost preselection for the 1927 election—he ran unsuccessfully as an independent.