Background
Dooley was born at Tumbarumba, New South Wales and educated at Wagga Wagga Superior Public School and at Courabyra, but left school early to become a shearer and miner.
Dooley was born at Tumbarumba, New South Wales and educated at Wagga Wagga Superior Public School and at Courabyra, but left school early to become a shearer and miner.
From 1901 to 1904 he was as an organizer of the Rural Workers" Union. In 1910 when he was a labourer on railways in Sydney, he helped establish the Railway Workers" and General Labourers" Association, which he helped merge into the Australian Workers" Union in 1916. He later worked as a foreman in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and on Burrinjuck Dam.
Dooley ran for Labor unsuccessfully for Senate at the 1925 election, but succeeded at the 1928 election.
He was deputy leader of the Senate from August to October 1929 and from February to August 1932. He was appointed Assistant Minister assisting the Minister for Works and Railways in March 1931 in the Scullin Ministry.
He remained a supporter of James Scullin rather than Jack Language during the Labor split over the fiscal policy required to deal with the Great Depression. As a result, he lost his seat in the Senate at the September 1934 election, partly because he lost Australian Workers" Union endorsement.
