Editing Joseph Cook (section)

==Early political career==
[[File:JosephCook2.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Cook in 1894]]
Cook was elected to the [[New South Wales Legislative Assembly]] as MP for the coalfields seat of [[Electoral district of Hartley (New South Wales)|Hartley]] in 1891, in Labor's first big breakthrough in Australian politics.<ref name=NSWparl>{{Cite NSW Parliament |id=1070 |name=Sir Joseph Cook (1860–1947) |former=Yes |access-date=20 June 2020}}</ref> It was the first time Labor had won a seat in any parliament in Australia.

In 1894, however, Cook was the leader of those parliamentarians who refused to accept the Labor Party's decision to make all members sign a "pledge" to be bound by decisions of the Parliamentary Labor Party (Caucus).<ref name="adb"/> Cook's protest was based on Labor's attitude to the [[tariff]] question in particular, with his preference for free trade being increasingly at odds with his party.<ref>{{cite web|title=Joseph Cook|url=http://www.nma.gov.au/primeministers/joseph_cook|website=Prime Ministers of Australia|publisher=National Museum Australia|access-date=24 April 2016|archive-date=21 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621174459/http://www.nma.gov.au/primeministers/joseph_cook|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was also based on his religious beliefs, which valued independence of conscience as a necessary moral imperative.<ref>Gorman (2023), ''Joseph Cook'', p.37.</ref> By the end of the year, he had become a follower of [[George Reid]]'s [[Free Trade Party]], and for years afterwards he was seen as a '[[class traitor]]' by Labor.<ref name="adb"/> Cook for his part maintained that the original Labor Party of 1891 was an entirely separate entity from the pledged party, hence that he had never been a member of what became the Labor Party.<ref>Gorman (2023), ''Joseph Cook'', p.59.</ref> He became an invaluable ally of Reid, despite the fact that the two men had distinctly different characters, and remained colleagues only at a distance.<ref name=pms/>

Cook was appointed [[Postmaster-General of New South Wales]] when Reid formed a government in August 1894. He chaired two intercolonial post and telegraph (P&T) conferences in 1896, at which the Australian colonies agreed to fund a [[Pacific Cable]] linking Australia to North America.{{sfnp|Livingston|1998|p=127}} In opening the first conference, he spoke of the "federal spirit [...] animating most of our Australasian national endeavours at the present time". It was eventually resolved that the colonies would contribute equally to funding the cable rather than on a simple per-capita basis, an agreement which "marked a turning point in the achievement of 'practical Federation'" and foreshadowed the development of a [[Australian Senate|Senate]] with equal representation for each state.{{sfnp|Livingston|1998|p=128}} According to Kevin Livingston, who wrote a history of pre-Federation telecommunications in Australia, he "deserves to be recognised as having played an influential, mediating role in leading the Australian colonies towards technological federalism in the mid-1890s".{{sfnp|Livingston|1998|p=129}}