Preceded by Clyde Cameron Name John Scott Nationality Scottish Australian Role Australian politician | Party Australian Labor Party Occupation Trade unionist Succeeded by Christine Gallus | |
Born 31 March 1934 (age 89)
Hamilton, Scotland ( 1934-03-31 ) | ||
Political party Australian Labor Party | ||
John Lynden Scott (born 31 March 1934) is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1980 to 1993.
Scott was born in Hamilton, Scotland. He served in the Royal Air Force from 1955 to 1958. After emigrating to Australia, he became active in the trade union movement, serving as a member of the Amalgamated Metal Workers and Shipwrights Union council from 1969 to 1980.
When longtime Labor power broker Clyde Cameron announced his retirement ahead of the 1980 federal election, Scott was elected his successor in the north Adelaide seat of Hindmarsh. Scott was subsequently re-elected to the same seat at the 1983, 1984, 1987 and 1990 elections. His seat had long been one of the safest Labor seats in the country, but demographic change made the seat substantially less safe for Labor. As a result, Scott's margins were nowhere near as large as the ones Cameron had tallied over the previous 31 years.
A redistribution ahead of the 1993 federal election cut Scott's already slim majority in Hindmarsh by more than half. Additionally, the writs were dropped at a bad time for the South Australian state Labor government, which was hobbled by a massive debt load brought on by the collapse of the State Bank of South Australia. With these factors in mind, Scott retired at the end of his fifth term.