Joseph Martin "Joe" Riordan AO

Order of Australia

The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...

 (born 27 February 1930) is a former Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician and briefly government minister.

A Catholic, Riordan was born in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and educated at Patrician Brothers School and Marist Brother College in that city. He married Patricia Watkins in 1955; they have four sons and two daughters. From 1958 to 1972 he was Federal Secretary of the Federated Clerks' Union

Australian Services Union

The Australian Municipal, Administrative, Clerical and Services Union, which operates under the trading name of the Australian Services Union or ASU, is a trade union that represents members in a variety of industries.-Union history:...

 (a stronghold of anti-Communist social democrats).

Riordan was elected as the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member for the House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 seat of Phillip

Division of Phillip

The Division of Phillip was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It was located in the Sydney's eastern suburbs, and was named after Captain Arthur Phillip, captain of the First Fleet and first Governor of New South Wales...

  at the 1972 election

Australian federal election, 1972

Federal elections were held in Australia on 2 December 1972. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. The Liberal Party of Australia had been in power since 1949, under Prime Minister of Australia William McMahon since March 1971 with coalition partner the Country Party...

, defeating the Liberal

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

, William Aston

William Aston

Sir William John Aston, KCMG was an Australian politician. Born in Sydney, he attended state schools before becoming an accountant and company director. He served in World War II from 1942-44, and was involved in local politics as a member of Waverley Council...

. He was Minister for Housing and Construction

Minister for Housing (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness is Mark Arbib, who was appointed on 14 September 2010, following the Labor Party's win at the 2010 election...

 from June 1975 until the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in November 1975. He was defeated by the Liberals' Jack Birney

Jack Birney

Reginald John "Jack" Birney was an Australian politician. Born in Sydney, he was a barrister before entering politics. In 1975, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Liberal member for Phillip. He held the seat until his defeat in 1983 by Jeannette McHugh. Birney died in...

 at the 1975 election

Australian federal election, 1975

Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1975. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election following a double dissolution of both Houses....

.

Riordan was Senior Deputy President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission

Australian Industrial Relations Commission

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission, or AIRC , was a tribunal with powers under the Workplace Relations Act 1996. It was the central institution of Australian labour law...

 from 1986 to 1995. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia

Order of Australia

The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...

(AO) in January 1995 for "service to industrial relations, to social justice and to the Community".