Neville Newell

Neville Joseph Newell (born 14 October 1952) is an Australian politician. He served as a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1990 until 1996 and as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1999 to 2007.

Newell was born in Sydney, Australia, received a Diploma of Applied Science from the Hawkesbury Agricultural College and a Diploma of Education from the Armidale College of Advanced Education, now part of the University of New England.^[1] He was a teacher in the Riverina and Lismore before running for Parliament.

In 1990, Newell was preselected as the Australian Labor Party candidate for Richmond, a historically rural seat in northern New South Wales. The seat was held by the leader of the National Party, Charles Blunt. Newell was initially given little chance of winning, since he was running in what had historically been a very strong National seat (the party had held it without interruption since 1922). In the election, Newell only won 27 percent of the first preference vote. However, on the seventh count, anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Newell, allowing him to defeat Blunt. Newell was only the second person to defeat a major federal party leader in an election. He was reelected in 1993, but was defeated by National's Larry Anthony in 1996.

He subsequently won the state seat of Tweed from the National Party in 1999, but was defeated by National candidate Geoff Provest in 2007.^[2]

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