Henry Bournes Higgins was born in Ireland and came to Australia with his family in 1870. Working as a teacher to support himself, he studied at the University of Melbourne, graduating LLB in 1874 and MA in 1876. He practised as a barrister from 1876.
In 1894, Higgins was elected as member of the Legislative Assembly for Geelong. He was a supporter of progressive movements such as greater protection for workers and votes for women. In 1897, he was elected to the Constitutional Convention and took part in framing the Australian Constitution, contributing particularly to the creation of Commonwealth power over industrial relations and the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of religion.
Higgins' opposition to the terms of the proposed Constitution, and his public criticism of Australian involvement in the Boer War, helped his opponents defeat him in the Victorian elections of 1900, but he became a member of the first Commonwealth Parliament in 1901, and served as Attorney-General in the first, brief federal Labor government, in 1904. In 1906, he was appointed a justice of the High Court of Australia, and the following year became president of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration.
Higgins is best known for his 1908 judgment in the Harvester Case. He ruled that federal law required the manufacturer H. V. McKay to pay the workers at his Sunshine Harvester factory a wage that would enable them to keep their families in ‘a condition of frugal comfort’. This was the beginning of the basic wage in Australia.
Henry Higgins died at Dromana, Victoria in 1929.
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