John Reeves (judge)
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The Honourable John Reeves |
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|---|---|
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Northern Territory |
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In office 5 March 1983 – 1 December 1984 |
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| Preceded by | Grant Tambling |
| Succeeded by | Paul Everingham |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
2 January 1952 Queensland |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Occupation | Federal Court Justice |
John Edward Reeves (born 2 January 1952) is an Australian politician, lawyer and judge. He was a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1983 to 1984, a prominent barrister in Darwin afterwards, the author of the controversial 1999 Reeves Report on Aboriginal land rights, and has been a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia since November 2007.
From 2007 to 2012 (until the appointment of Duncan Kerr), he was the only former politician serving on the Federal Court, and the only former politician serving on an Australian appellate court.
Reeves was born in Stanthorpe, Queensland, and was admitted as a solicitor in 1975 after completing five years articles of clerkship and the Queensland Solicitors Admission Course. He moved to Alice Springs, where he worked as a solicitor, and became involved with the Labor Party. He won preselection to contest the Northern Territory seat in the House of Representatives for the 1983 federal election, and was elected amidst the election of the Hawke government. Another federal election was held the following year, however, and Reeves faced a strong challenge when the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Paul Everingham, resigned to challenge Reeves. Initially thought to have little chance against the popular Everingham, he closed the gap in the polls significantly during the campaign, but fell approximately 1,800 votes short.
Reeves had moved to Darwin upon his election to parliament, and returned to his legal practice there after his 1984 defeat, being admitted to the bar the following year. He remained involved in the Labor Party, where he was heavily associated with the party's right-wing faction, and initially was a staunch ally of Opposition Leader Bob Collins. Reeves subsequently nominated and won the presidency of the Northern Territory branch of the ALP in 1985 over concerted opposition from the party's left wing. Though he remained ideologically aligned with Collins during his term as party president, Reeves announced in 1986 that he intended to run for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly at the 1987 territory election, in a move that was widely seen as a prelude to a leadership challenge against Collins. He lost preselection for the highly marginal CLP seat of Jingili, and was forced to contest the less marginal seat of Casuarina, which he went on to lose to incumbent MLA Nick Dondas.
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