John Button
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The Honourable John Button |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Minister for Industry and Commerce | |
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In office 11 March 1983 – 31 March 1993 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Bob Hawke Paul Keating |
| Preceded by | Andrew Peacock |
| Succeeded by | Alan Griffiths |
| Leader of the Government in the Senate | |
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In office 11 March 1983 – 24 March 1993 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Bob Hawke Paul Keating |
| Preceded by | John Carrick |
| Succeeded by | Gareth Evans |
| Senator for Victoria | |
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In office 18 May 1974 – 31 March 1993 |
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| Succeeded by | Kim Carr |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
30 June 1933 Ballarat, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 8 April 2008 (aged 74) Melbourne, Victoria |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Spouse(s) | Joan Grant |
| Children | 3 |
John Norman Button (30 June 1933 – 8 April 2008) was an Australian politician, who served as a senior minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor governments. He was notable for the Button car plan, which involved modernising Australia's car industry by reducing tariffs and government protection.
Button was born in Ballarat, Victoria, and was educated at The Geelong College and the University of Melbourne, where he graduated in arts and law. He became a prominent barrister and solicitor in Melbourne, and was active in the Australian Labor Party from the late 1950s. In the 1960s he joined a group of other middle-class Labor activists, such as John Cain, Barry Jones, Richard McGarvie, Frank Costigan and Michael Duffy, known as "the Participants," whose objective was to end Left-wing control of the Victorian branch of the Labor Party.
In 1970, the Participants formed an alliance with the federal Labor leader Gough Whitlam and the President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Bob Hawke, to bring about intervention in the Victorian branch by the Federal Executive. Button became part of the interim Advisory Council which took over the branch after intervention, and in 1974 he was elected to the Australian Senate as a strong supporter of Whitlam. He remained a backbencher during the remaining 18 months of the Whitlam government.
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