Background
Perkins was born at Gocup near Tumut, New South Wales and educated at public schools in Tumut and Cooma.
Perkins was born at Gocup near Tumut, New South Wales and educated at public schools in Tumut and Cooma.
Perkins contested the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Monaro in 1904 and in 1907, without success. In 1921, he was selected to fill a casual vacancy for Goulburn (which, during the proportional representation experiment from 1920 to 1927, was a multi-electorate that included the former Monaro district) for the Nationalist Party. He was government whip from 1926 to 1929 and was appointed Minister for the Interior in the Lyons government in October 1932, responsible among other things for administering the Northern Territory.
The anthropologist, A. P. Elkin congratulated him on his efforts "to make inter-racial conditions in the North more equable and more just".
Nevertheless, criticism of Australia"s treatment of indigenous Australians in the British press led Lyons to drop him from Cabinet in 1934. He was minister without portfolio from November 1937 to November 1938, Minister in charge of Territories for two days in November 1938 and then Minister for Trade and Customs until April 1939, when he became Minister without portfolio administering External Territories until March 1940.
He was defeated by Allan Fraser in the 1943 elections.
He was a member of the Cooma Municipal Council from 1902 to 1909 and mayor in 1904 and 1908.