William James Cleary (29 December 1885 – 20 July 1973) was an Australian brewery executive who was recruited by the New South Wales government to take the position of Commissioner of the railways during the Great Depression.
[3] He left school at age 14 and began working at his father's workplace,[4] Tooth's Kent Brewery, in his spare time studying economics at Sydney University, where he was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1918.
[6] The Government of New South Wales was for some years perturbed at the losses being increasingly incurred by the railways as motor vehicles took much of their traffic, and the idea took hold that management of the network should be a financial rather than engineering position.
[7] On 8 November 1929, Premier Bavin announced that the remainder of James Fraser's contract, plus another seven years, had been offered to Cleary at the statutory salary of £5,000 p.a., substantially less than he received at Tooth's.
Cleary explained his acceptance of the position as giving something back to the State, but the true reason could be that he found success boring, and he enjoyed a challenge more than simply making money.
To that end, he requested from Cleary the services of Charles Joachim Goode,[a] a Labor man with wide railway experience, to help formulate new legislation.
In 1930 Lang pushed through an amendment to the Industrial Arbitration (Eight Hours) Act, which came into effect in January 1931, giving him the power to "ration" (i.e. stand down without cause and without pay) any member of any corporate body (including Cleary and his assistants) for any period.
[citation needed] In June 1934 Charles Lloyd Jones, foundation chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, resigned to concentrate on his business interests,[27] and in July Cleary was announced as his successor, with a three-year contract and an annual salary of £500.