John Edward ‘Jack’ Harding was born in Brisbane in 1902 or 1903. His father Edward Harding served in the AIF during WWI and was on a war pension following the war. The family had a soldier settlement block northwest of Rockhampton, where Jack Harding became the secretary of the local settlers' association. During the Great Depression he advanced the Douglas Social Credit concept of Municipal Councils issuing vouchers in return for work done on roads and similar activities. He sold his farm and ran unsuccessfully for the State Parliament as a Social Credit of Australia Party candidate in 1934. Following the Second World War, Harding joined the Labor Party. Because of John Curtin's early support of Social Credit, Harding believed that its ideas might be advanced through the Labor Party. He played a major role in the election of the George Gray to the Federal Parliament for Rockhampton. Harding usually gave his occupation as farmer and business man. From ca. 1944 to ca. 1955 he ran The Farm Exchange in Rockhampton’s Denham Street together with A E Webb. From the mid-1940s he was active in the Monetary Reform League (Rockhampton) and in 1971 established the Rockhampton Anti-Inflation Study Group. He subscribed to the Australian League of Rights publications and lobbied politicians to incorporate social credit principles into their monetary policies, and to establish a Queensland State Bank. The Labor Party opposed his ideas and expelled him from the party. He advanced Capricornia New State Movement principles and also lobbied against cruelty against animals and the fluoridation of public water supplies. Harding died in May 1991.

The Monetary Reform League of Rockhampton was formed in April 1944 with an executive comprising Mrs A. E. Webb, Mr E. McDonnell, Mr S. Pearce, Mr R. Hoole and Mr J. E. Harding (also known as Jack Harding). The group aimed to move from a system of public money based on taxation and debt to system based on credit.