Chris Hurford
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The Honourable Chris Hurford AO |
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Opening of the Chris Hurford exhibition at the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library in 2011.
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| Member of the Australian Parliament for Adelaide |
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In office 25 October 1969 – 31 December 1987 |
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| Preceded by | Andrew Jones |
| Succeeded by | Mike Pratt |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Christopher John Hurford-Jones 30 July 1931 Mhow, Indore Residency, British India |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Occupation | Accountant |
Christopher John "Chris" Hurford AO (born 30 July 1931) was a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives seat of Adelaide from 1969 to 1987. He played a key role in the development of Australia's skills-oriented immigration policy, and founded the ALP Labor Unity faction in SA.
Hurford was born in Mhow, India, to an English father and Australian mother. In 1940, his mother took the children to Perth, Western Australia where Hurford attended school, before returning to India, then to England. In 1949, his whole family migrated to Western Australia as 'ten-pound poms', despite their Australian heritage. After studying at the London School of Economics, Chris Hurford worked in accountancy. He entered federal parliament in 1969, representing the Division of Adelaide, South Australia. The seat had fallen to Liberal Andrew Jones during the massive Coalition landslide of 1966. However, Jones' strong conservatism didn't play well in this ancestrally Labor seat, and Hurford retook the seat for Labor on a resounding 14.3 percent swing, turning it into a safe Labor seat in one stroke. Hurford actually won enough votes on the first count to take the seat without the need for preferences. He held Adelaide until his resignation in 1987.
Hurford was Minister for Housing and Construction, outside Cabinet in the first Hawke Ministry from March 1983 to December 1984. In the second Hawke Ministry, he was promoted to Cabinet as Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs until February 1987, when he replaced Donald Grimes as Minister for Community Services.
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