John Newman (Australian politician)
John Paul Newman (8 December 1946 – 5 September 1994) was a member of the New South Wales state parliament and Member for the seat of Cabramatta. He was the first elected politician to be assassinated in Australia.[1]
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[edit] Early life
Newman was born John Naumenko to Austrian and Croatian parents, who settled in Cabramatta, New South Wales when he was a small child. He was educated at Cabramatta Primary School and Liverpool High School. He went on to work at Borg Warner in Fairfield.
[edit] Political career
In March 1972 he changed his surname by deed poll to Newman. He had a long history of involvement with the labor movement and with the Australian Labor Party, spending much of his working life as a union official. He was a State union organiser with the Federated Clerks Union from 1970 to 1986. Newman completed post-graduate studies in industrial law at the University of Sydney and undertook a variety of Trade Union Training Authority education programs.
Newman was elected an alderman on Fairfield Council in 1977 and remained on the council for 10 years. He was Deputy Mayor in 1985–86 and also served as Acting Mayor in 1986. In December 1979 Newman's pregnant wife, Mary, and five-year-old son, David, were killed in an automobile accident at Bossley Park.
Following a by-election in the seat of Cabramatta, Newman was elected to Legislative Assembly of New South Wales on 1 February 1986.[2] Since the 1970s, Cabramatta has been a centre for immigrants and refugees from Asian backgrounds, particularly Vietnam, China, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. For many years Newman had waged a campaign to break up the Asian crime gangs and corruption that had plagued the area.
[edit] Death
Newman had been the target of numerous death threats from such gangs but did not seek police protection. During the night of 5 September 1994 while outside his Woods Avenue home, he was shot and killed. His fiancée, Lucy Wang, was with him at the time but saw little of what happened because of the swiftness of the murder.
A local club owner, Phuong Ngo, who had previously attempted to secure Labor Party pre-selection for the seat of Cabramatta and had run against him as an independent in 1991, was convicted of the killing in 2001. Two of Ngo's alleged associates were acquitted. In 2003, an appeal by Ngo against the conviction failed. A 2009 Judicial inquiry into Ngo's conviction also found no evidence of an injustice.
[edit] Legacy
A local swimming pool was named after Newman by the Fairfield City Council.
[edit] Notes
- ^ However, Thomas John Ley, member for Hurstville and St George probably murdered his political opponents, Fred McDonald in 1925 and Hyman Goldstein, member for Coogee, in 1928.
- ^ "Mr John Paul Newman (1946–1994)". Members of Parliament. Parliament of New South Wales. http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/members.nsf/1fb6ebed995667c2ca256ea100825164/10745b62aa734633ca256a96001f9ef5. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Wang, Lucy. Blood Price: The Moving Story of the Fiancee of Murdered MP, John Newman (1996)
[edit] External links
| Parliament of New South Wales | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Eric Bedford |
Member for Cabramatta 1986–1994 |
Succeeded by Reba Meagher |
- Australian Labor Party politicians
- Australian Roman Catholics
- Australian people of Austrian descent
- Australian people of Croatian descent
- Murder in Sydney
- Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
- People from Sydney
- Assassinated Australian politicians
- People murdered in New South Wales
- Deaths by firearm in New South Wales
- 1946 births
- 1994 deaths
