William Arthur Holman (4 August 1871 – 5 June 1934) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920.

[1][3] As a cabinet maker in Sydney, Holman was interested in the ideas of John Stuart Mill, William Morris, Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin, and became very active in the Australian labour movement.

During that period, he was the proprietor of the Daily Post newspaper, sympathetic to the labour movement, which ended in liquidation, with Holman and four other directors convicted of fraud.

[1] In 1900, Holman began to study law part-time and, in 1903, he passed the University of London's intermediate examination, being admitted to the bar as a barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 31 July 1903.

In the late 1890s, Holman was on the central executive of the embryonic Labor Party, before being elected as the Member for Grenfell in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1898.

When Grenfell was abolished in 1904 as part of the post-Federation downsizing of the Legislative Assembly, Holman transferred to the new seat of Cootamundra.

[4] In 1910, the Labor Party first won Government in New South Wales with a slim majority of 46 seats in a parliament of 90, with James McGowen as Premier, and Holman was made Attorney General.

On 30 June 1913 McGowen resigned and Holman was named leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, hence becoming Premier.

The Labor Party had a policy commitment to abolishing the New South Wales Legislative Council, and Holman moved a motion to that effect in 1893.

Other issues placing him at odds with the labour movement included the government's failure to control prices and profiteering during the war, and its attitudes to pay and conditions of public servants.

While much of the Australian labour movement and general community were opposed to conscription, Holman strongly supported it, as did federal Prime Minister Billy Hughes.

At the general election held that March, the Nationalists won a huge victory, picking up a 13-seat swing which was magnified by the large number of Labor MPs who followed Holman out of the party.

However, at the 13 March 1920 state election, Holman and his Nationalists were thrown from office in a massive swing, being succeeded by a Labor government under the short-lived John Storey.

He was elected to the federal parliament as the Sydney seat of Martin in December 1931 as a member of the United Australia Party, which by this time had absorbed the Nationalists.

His health having deteriorated over a considerable period, he died on 5 June 1934 in the Sydney suburb of Gordon, apparently from shock and loss of blood after a difficult tooth extraction on the previous day.

Although Holman protected the state-owned enterprises he had helped create during his ALP days, the Australian labour movement still considers him a "rat".