George Petersen (Australian politician)

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Wilfred George Petersen (May 13, 1921 - March 28, 2000) was an Australian politician, affiliated with the Australian Labor Party and elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

Petersen was born in Childers, Queensland, the grandchild of Scandinavian migrants. He was educated at Bundaberg High School, later working as a telephonist for the Postmaster-General's Department and as a pensions officer and special magistrate for the Department of Social Services from 1937 to 1968. In the war he served in Queensland and Borneo as a military signaller in a commando squadron from 1942 to 1946.

In 1947 he married his first wife, Elaine Tout, and had two children in 1953 and 1956. Later, they divorced and he married Mairi Gould. They had one daughter.

In 1943 Petersen joined the Communist Party of Australia. He left in 1956 after Khrushchev's Secret Speech, which denounced Stalin. He joined the Australian Labour Party in 1957, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly as member for Kembla in 1968. He represented this electorate until the 1971 election, when he moved to the seat of Illawarra, which he held until his retirement in 1988.

[edit] Controversy

Petersen was often outspoken even in his own party, speaking out for politically unpopular causes such as prison reform, homosexual law reform, legalised abortion, the Vietnam War, unions and the environment. He defended the Ananda Marga Three after their conviction for the 1978 Sydney Hilton bombing, and was later vindicated when they were pardoned in 1985.

In 1987 he crossed the floor to vote against the Unsworth Government's workers' compensation legislation. For this he was expelled, and served the rest of his term in the Illawarra Workers Party, which he formed.