John Hyde (Australian federal politician)
| John Hyde | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Moore |
|
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In office 18 May 1974 – 5 March 1983 |
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| Preceded by | Don Maisey |
| Succeeded by | Allen Blanchard |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
2 February 1936 Western Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party | Liberal Party of Australia |
| Occupation | Farmer |
John Martin Hyde (born 2 February 1936) is a former Australian politician. He was elected as the member for the Division of Moore in Western Australia for the Liberal Party.
Hyde was born and educated in Western Australia before farming wheat and sheep at Dalwallinu. He lost his right arm as a result of a farming accident. A successful farmer, he was a councillor and deputy-President of the Shire of Dalwallinu and won the federal seat of Moore in 1974, holding it until he was defeated in 1983. With three other MPs he formed 'the Dries' which were then a backbench group which advocated economic conservatism and soundness in public finances and rejected short-term populism. He opposed the economic policies of the Whitlam Government which was defeated in December 1975, and also many of the policies of the succeeding Fraser Coalition Government which he considered to be in many ways hardly if at all better.
Among his campaigns was to stop the two-airline monopoly and various subsidies to the aircraft, shipping and car industries (former Navy Minister and "Dry" Bert Kelly, author of "The Modest Member" and "The Modest Farmer" columns in various papers, had described the aircraft and shipping industries in Australia as "Our flying and floating feather beds."). Hyde's central concern was the harm being done to the Australian economy, particularly to the export industries, by tariffs and other trade-barriers, and he approved Whitlam's 25% across-the-board tariff cut, though it was unpopular with much of his own party, or at least seen by them as something to be used against Labor. Indeed, although a competent and professional politician and a hard-working electorate member, his outspoken and independent attitude and readiness to express his strong economic convictions, probably affected his career within the Liberal Party adversely. Despite his undoubted high abilities, his frequent outspoken opposition to Fraser probably prevented him being considered for the Ministry which his intelligence and grasp of affairs would ordinarily have warranted.
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