Rex Alan Patterson is a former Australian politician and minister.

Patterson was born in Bundaberg, Queensland and educated at the University of Queensland

University of Queensland

The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...

, the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

, the University of Illinois

University of Illinois system

The University of Illinois is a system of public universities in Illinois consisting of three campuses: Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield. Across its three campuses, the University of Illinois enrolls about 70,000 students. It had an operating budget of $4.17 billion in 2007.-System:The...

 and the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

.

Patterson was elected as an 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 Dawson

Division of Dawson

The Division of Dawson is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The division was created in 1949 and is named for Anderson Dawson, the first Labor Premier of Queensland and leader of the first parliamentary socialist government anywhere in the world...

 at a by-election in 1966. When the Whitlam government

Second Whitlam Ministry

The Second Whitlam Ministry was the forty-ninth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 19 December 1972 to 12 June 1974.Australian Labor Party*Hon Gough Whitlam, QC MP: Prime Minister. Minister for Foreign Affairs...

 was elected at the December 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...

, he was appointed Minister for Northern Development

Minister for Resources and Energy (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Resources and Energy is Martin Ferguson, appointed on 3 December 2007. The Minister administers his portfolios through the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.-List of Ministers for Resources:...

.

On 19 October 1973 he was sworn in as Minister for the Northern Territory

Minister for Home Affairs (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Home Affairs has been Brendan O'Connor since 6 June 2009. The Home Affairs portfolio brings together agencies such as the Australian Customs Service , the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, which were previously the...

 by Queen Elizabeth II, the only occasion when an Australian minister has been sworn in by the Monarch of Australia directly (rather than by the Governor-General of Australia

Governor-General of Australia

The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative in Australia at federal/national level of the Australian monarch . He or she exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth...

).

On Christmas Day, 1974, the day after Cyclone Tracy

Cyclone Tracy

Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, 1974...

, he flew into Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

 with Major-General Alan Stretton

Alan Stretton

Major General Alan Bishop Stretton AO CBE is a former senior Australian Army officer.Stretton began his military career serving with the 2/9th Battalion after graduating from the Royal Military College, Duntroon during the Second World War...

 and they took responsibility for rebuilding Darwin. In June 1975 Patterson's portfolios were combined and retitled Minister for Northern Australia.

On 14 October 1975, following Rex Connor

Rex Connor

Reginald Francis Xavier "Rex" Connor , Australian politician, was a minister in the Whitlam government and promoted government investment to support national development...

's resignation from the ministry

Third Whitlam Ministry

The Third Whitlam Ministry was the fiftieth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 12 June 1974 to 11 November 1975. It was dismissed in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.Australian Labor Party...

, he became Minister for Agriculture

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Australia)

The current Australian Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig.-Portfolio responsibilities:The minister administers his portfolio through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and its component bodies:...

. He lost this position when the government was dismissed on 11 November. He lost his seat in the subsequent 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....

.