John FitzPatrick (Australian federal politician)

For other people named John Fitzpatrick, see John Fitzpatrick (disambiguation).
John FitzPatrick
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Darling
In office
25 October 1969  10 December 1977
Preceded by Joe Clark
Succeeded by Seat abolished
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Riverina
In office
10 December 1977  19 September 1980
Preceded by John Sullivan
Succeeded by Noel Hicks
Personal details
Born (1915-04-24)24 April 1915
Broken Hill, New South Wales
Died 28 July 1997(1997-07-28) (aged 82)
Nationality Australian
Political party Australian Labor Party
Occupation Boilermaker
Religion Catholic

John FitzPatrick (24 April 1915 – 28 July 1997) was an Australian politician.

Fitzpatrick was born and lived all of his life in Broken Hill, New South Wales and was a boilermaker before running for Parliament. He was elected for the Australian Labor Party as the federal member for Darling in rural New South Wales from 1969 to 1977 and as the member for Riverina from 1977 to 1980.[1]

FitzPatrick served his first four terms as the member for Darling, one of the few country seats where Labor consistently did well. The seat had been in Labor hands for all but a few months since Federation. As a measure of how safe this seat was, he retained it in 1975 with a majority of seven percent even amid Labor's collapse that year. Ahead of the 1977 federal election, Darling was abolished, and FitzPatrick opted to follow most of his constituents into neighbouring Riverina. That seat had previously been a safe National Country seat, but the addition of the heavily pro-Labor territory from Darling gave Labor a notional majority. FitzPatrick challenged the National Country incumbent, John Sullivan, and won narrowly. However, facing the prospect of a challenge from the popular mayor of Broken Hill City Council, Noel Hicks, FitzPatrick did not run for reelection in 1980.

Notes

  1. "Members of the House of Representatives since 1901". Parliamentary Handbook. Parliament of Australia. Archived from the original on 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-08-27.
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by
Joe Clark
Member for Darling
1969–1977
Division abolished
Preceded by
John Sullivan
Member for Riverina
1977–1980
Succeeded by
Noel Hicks
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