Kirton represented Ballarat West in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1889 to 1904, and from 1907 to 1908. In parliament he condemned privilege and fought against the abuse of free railway passes. He pioneered old age pensions and supported income tax, abolition of plural voting, and votes for women. He championed village settlement schemes and openly supported the right to strike. But his biographer comments that ‘as a minister ... he seemed to forget lifelong principles and by calling the rail strike of May 1903 a rebellion he so alienated ... his working-class support that he lost his seat’. There are no records of his parliamentary speeches.
