John Joseph Fahey AC (10 January 194512 September 2020) was an Australian politician who served as

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales actin ...

from 1992 to 1995 and as the federal Minister for Finance from 1996 to 2001. He was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

from 1984 to 1996 and the federal

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from 1996 to 2001. Fahey also served as president of the

World Anti-Doping Agency The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; , AMA) is an international organization co-founded by the governments of over 140 nations along with the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against d ...

and later became

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

of the

Australian Catholic University Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a public university in Australia. It has seven Australian campuses and also maintains a campus in Rome. History Australian Catholic University was opened on 1 January 1991 following the amalgamation ...

Early life

Fahey was born in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand, the son of Stephen Fahey, a farmer, and his wife Annie Fahey of Galway, Ireland. In 1956, Fahey migrated with his family to

Picton, New South Wales Picton is a small town in the Macarthur region of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The town is the administrative centre of the Wollondilly Shire local government area. Picton is located southwest of the Sydney CBD. The town is part of ...

. He was educated at

Chevalier College Chevalier College is an independent Roman Catholic co-educational secondary day school, located in , in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. The College is administered by the priests and brothers of the international r ...

in Bowral and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. He married Colleen Maree McGurren in 1968 and they had two daughters and one son. He became a

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

Australian in 1973. Fahey also played 37 lower grade matches for the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilitated by ...

in the

NSWRL The New South Wales Rugby League Ltd (NSWRL) is an Australian rugby league football competition operator in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission.It was registered on 21 ...

State politics

Fahey won the seat of electoral district of Camden for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

in 1984. Fahey was elected member for Southern Highlands at the 1988 general election, and re-elected at the

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

and

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

state elections. During this period, Fahey was Minister for Industrial Relations from March 1988 and Minister for Further Education, Training and Employment from July 1990 in the Premier

Nick Greiner Nicholas Frank Hugo Greiner (; born 27 April 1947) is an Australian politician who served as the 37th Premier of New South Wales from 1988 to 1992. Greiner was Leader of the New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party from 1983 to 1992 and ...

led coalition government. In June 1992, Fahey was appointed

after Greiner was forced to resign as a result of an Independent Commission Against Corruption of New South Wales investigation. Among those that Fahey defeated for the Liberal leadership in order to become premier was Bruce Baird, who was then elected as Fahey's Liberal deputy and whose son Mike would become premier in 2014. On the day that he had replaced Greiner, Fahey described it as "the saddest day of his life". In 1994, NSW Parliament was prorogued on 7 December when the Fahey government was attempting to stop a committee's work. In March 1995, Fahey's government was narrowly defeated in a state election by the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

opposition, led by

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, New South Wales branch of the A ...

. Fahey is noted for having thwarted an assassination attempt on

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, a ...

. On

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Flag of Great Britain, Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove, a ...

1994, Prince Charles was about to commence handing out awards at a ceremony in Sydney's

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour and neighborhood adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central busines ...

when a former

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

student,

David Kang David Kang (born 1970) is an Australian barrister. In 1994, he fired two blank shots from a starting pistol at Charles, Prince of Wales (now Ki ...

, lunged onto the stage towards the prince, simultaneously firing two shots from a starter's pistol. Fahey, sitting next to the prince, subsequently assisted by the then Australian of the Year, Ian Kiernan, tackled Kang and wrestled him to the ground, after which Kang was subdued and arrested. Although the attack proved less dangerous than it was first thought to be, Fahey was nonetheless widely praised for his unthinking bravery. Fahey played a key role in the bidding process for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and is also noted for his reaction when Sydney won, jumping up and down enthusiastically.

Federal politics

Fahey resigned from state politics just under a year after his state government was defeated at the polls and successfully sought endorsement for the Liberal Party, to serve in the federal House of Representatives in the seat of Macarthur. Fahey was elected at the 1996 federal election and served as Minister for Finance and Administration in the Howard government. A redistribution in late 2000 radically altered Macarthur, cutting out most of the Southern Highlands and turning it into a notionally Labor seat centered on southwest Sydney. Believing this made Macarthur impossible to hold, Fahey sought to contest neighbouring Hume, which had absorbed much of his old Southern Highlands base. Hume was held by first-term MP Alby Schultz, a fellow Liberal who had also served in state parliament alongside Fahey. As a minister, Fahey was entitled to a seat under internal party convention. However, Schultz refused to hand Hume to Fahey, triggering a fight between the two. Prime Minister

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...

ordered an end to the feud. Soon afterward, Fahey announced in May 2001 that he was retiring, citing family, personal and health reasons, after having one of his lungs removed in February due to cancer. He retired in October 2001, prior to the November 2001 election.

Career after politics

Fahey became director of the Bradman Foundation when he left politics in 2001. On 17 October 2007, he was confirmed as the next president of the

, a position that he held until November 2013. In 2010, Fahey gave the 12th annual

Tom Brock Lecture The Tom Brock Lecture is an annual scholarly lecture organised by the Australian Society for Sports History at the bequest of Australian sports historian Tom Brock (historian), Tom Brock. The topic of the lecture is the history of rugby league fo ...

. Fahey was appointed as the fourth

of the

in Sydney for a five-year term from 4 September 2014. He was appointed to a second five-year term in May 2019, but died in September 2020.

Personal life and death

A devout

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, he was married to a former Anglican, Colleen, and stirred some controversy when he declared his opposition to both abortion and birth control. John and Colleen Fahey's daughter, Tiffany, was killed in a road accident, at the age of 27, on 26 December 2006. John and Colleen Fahey became the legal guardians of Tiffany's children, Campbell and Amber. His son, the eldest of three children, is Matthew Fahey and his elder daughter is Melanie Fahey. Fahey died on 12 September 2020 of

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

, having survived

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

in the early 2000s. He was 75 years old. The

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

held a

state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements o ...

for the former premier on 25 September, officiated by Archbishop Anthony Fisher at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney. Leader of the Opposition

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been the Leaders of the Australian Labor Party#Leader, leader of the Labor Party si ...

expressed condolences in Parliament, saying that "John Joseph Fahey was a great bloke. That is the greatest thing you can say about an Australian male", and that given his background, Labor might have expected the young John Fahey to join their ranks, but that political differences never got in the way of his instinct to treat others with respect.

Honours

Fahey was appointed

Companion of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in 2002 for service to the Australian and New South Wales Parliaments, particularly through landmark reform of industrial relations, facilitation of high technology and industry growth, and for raising the international profile of Australia as Chairman of the Bid for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

made him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Gregory the Great in 2019. In 2016, Fahey was also awarded the Esprit du Chevalier Medal by his alma mater

, that institution's highest public honour.

References

External links

WADA Executive Committee Members
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahey, John (Politician) 1945 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Australian lawyers Australian republicans Australian Roman Catholics Australian sports executives and administrators New Zealand emigrants to Australia Companions of the Order of Australia Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Gregory the Great Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Macarthur Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Members of the Cabinet of Australia Politicians from Wellington City Premiers of New South Wales University of Sydney alumni Treasurers of New South Wales World Anti-Doping Agency members 21st-century Australian politicians Australian MPs 1996–1998 Australian MPs 1998–2001 Ministers for corrections (New South Wales)