John Murphy (Australian politician)

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John Paul Murphy (born 31 May 1950), Australian politician, has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the Division of Lowe, New South Wales. He was born in Dunedoo, New South Wales, and was a public servant before entering politics.

Murphy is considered a hard-working local member, who has fought hard on the issues of aircraft noise, an MRI licence for the local hospital at Concord, health and childcare. In the 2001 Federal Election the average swing against Labor was 2.26%. Murphy, however, suffered a minor swing of only 0.9%. He is also one of the most socially conservative members of the Labor Party opposing the RU486 and Stem Cell bills and spoke in support of the government's Marriage Act which defined a marriage between a man and a woman.

He is an outspoken critic of the Federal Government's cross-media ownership reforms and sale of Telstra. He is also well for his work to crack down on tax barristers who cheat the tax system.

He is the Parliamentary Secretary to Labor Leader Kevin Rudd, however, supported Simon Crean and Mark Latham in the leadership ballots of 2003 and Kim Beazley in the 2006 leadership ballot.

Murphy is a popular Member of Parliament, liked both all sides of the political spectrum and has a very entertaining sense of humour which is noticeable in the many impromptu speeches he gives, usually in the time designated for Matters of Public Importance (the debate which immediately precedes Question Time. On one occasion he spoke three times in twenty minutes, engaging in a strong attack on the Federal Government's Cross Media Ownership legislation. He is well known for his constant use of the House of Representatives Notice Paper which he used to uncover systematic security problems in Sydney Airport.

He is married to Adrianna Murphy and they live in Russell Lea.

Persondata
NAME	Murphy, John Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Australian politician
DATE OF BIRTH	31 May 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dunedoo, New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH