The Honourable
Alan Cadman
OAM
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Mitchell
In office
18 May 1974 – 17 October 2007
Preceded byAlfred Ashley-Brown
Succeeded byAlex Hawke
Personal details
Born (1937-07-26) 26 July 1937
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Political partyLiberal Party of Australia
Alma materUniversity of New South Wales
OccupationOrchardist

Alan Glyndwr Cadman OAM (born 26 July 1937) is an Australian politician who served as a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from 18 May 1974 to 17 October 2007, representing the Division of Mitchell, New South Wales.

Biography

Cadman was born in Sydney and studied agriculture at the University of New South Wales. He was an orchardist and company director before entering politics.[1]

Despite his long tenure, Cadman was only considered for ministerial preferment twice. He served as parliamentary secretary to the prime minister (Malcolm Fraser) 1981–83 and parliamentary secretary to the minister for workplace relations and small business 1997–98. In 1992 he was one of a group of Coalition members of parliament who founded the Lyons Forum, a conservative ginger group.[2]

In 2003 Cadman was featured in an episode titled Cadman for PM of the satirical news program, CNNNN. The episode ridiculed Cadman's tenure on the backbenches and compared it to Paul Keating's 6 months on the backbench in 1991 before successfully challenging Bob Hawke for the leadership of the Labor party.

Cadman was challenged for preselection ahead of the 2007 election by Alex Hawke. However, on 16 June 2007, Cadman withdrew from the preselection contest, and later announced his current term would be his last.[3] He was to later condemn the circumstances under which he lost preselection to Hawke. Specifically, he accused Hawke of engaging in massive branch-stacking to ensure he would win the preselection contest for this comfortably safe Liberal seat.[4]

Cadman formally retired on 17 October, when the House was dissolved ahead of the election. At the time of his retirement, he was tied with Prime Minister John Howard, the member for neighbouring Bennelong, as the second-longest serving member of the House of Representatives. Both Cadman and Howard had first been elected in 1974; only Philip Ruddock had served in the House longer than Cadman and Howard.

Psephologist Antony Green in noting that Cadman had entered Parliament at the same time as Howard said that Cadman's career had "not followed the stellar trajectory of John Howard".

Despite Howard and Cadman having entered Parliament at the same time, Cadman was only briefly a parliamentary secretary between 1997 and 1998 during Howard's prime ministership.[5]

Just as Cadman and Howard had both entered Parliament in 1974 they both left it at the 2007 election because at the same time that Cadman had retired, Howard as the sitting prime minister had lost his seat of Bennelong at the same time as the Howard Government was voted out of office.

References

  1. ↑ "Biography for CADMAN, the Hon. Alan Glyndwr, OAM". ParlInfo. Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  2. ↑ Maddox, Marion (2005). God Under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics. Allen & Unwin. p. 38. ISBN 9781741145687.
  3. ↑ Clennell, Andrew (18 June 2007). "Age does not worry him, says Lib hopeful". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 17 June 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
  4. ↑ Maley, Paul; Salusinszky, Imre (24 September 2007). "Veteran Lib slams party's far Right". The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
  5. ↑ "Departing MPS - Federal Election 2007 - ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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