Allan Agapitos Morris (born 26 July 1940) is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the

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 1983 to 2001, representing the seat of

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

for the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP). He also served on the

Newcastle City Council Newcastle City Council is the local authority for the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear in North East England. Newcastle has had a council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. ...

from 1974 to 1983. He was expelled from the ALP in 2007.

Early life

Morris was born on 26 July 1940 in

Waratah, New South Wales Waratah is a north-western residential suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, from Newcastle's central business district and bounded to the north by the Main North railway line. Waratah station was opened in 1858 and is served by NS ...

. He and his older brother Peter Morris – also a federal MP – were the sons of Jimmy Morris, a Greek immigrant from the island of

Symi Symi, also transliterated as Syme or Simi (), is a Greece, Greek island and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality. It is mountainous and has the harbour town of Symi and its adjacent upper town Ano Symi, as well as several smaller ...

who anglicised his name from Agapitos Montiadis and ran a coffeehouse in

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle, also commonly referred to as Greater Newcastle ( ; ), is a large Metropolitan area, metropolitan area and the second-most-populous such area of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the cities of City of Newcastle, Newcastle and Ci ...

. Morris holds the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Newcastle. Prior to entering politics, he was a computer programmer and analyst. He was an alderman on

from 1974 to 1983 and also a councillor on electricity provider Shortland County Council from 1974 to 1977.

Politics

Early involvement

Morris was secretary of the ALP's Newcastle branch from 1973 to 1982. He was a delegate to the party's state council and state conference from 1975 and served as the party's campaign director for the federal

Division of Newcastle The Division of Newcastle is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. Geography Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determine ...

at the 1975 federal election.

House of Representatives

At the 1983 election, Morris was elected to the House of Representatives, retaining the seat of Newcastle for the ALP following the retirement of incumbent MP Charles Jones. He was re-elected on six further occasions (including at a supplementary election following the death of a candidate at the 1998 election), eventually retiring prior to the 2001 election. In parliament, Morris served as chair of the House Standing Committee on Community Affairs from 1993 to 1996 and as deputy chair of the House Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Resources from 1998 to 2001. He was factionally unaligned within the ALP and came into conflict with the

Hawke government The Hawke government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1983 to 1991. The government followed the Liberal-National Coalition Fraser government and was su ...

on several occasions, including on changes to the assets test for pensions and the Bell Group's 1986 takeover bid for

BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

. In 1990, he publicly criticised the government's decision to renege on an election promise to relocate the

Australian Maritime Safety Authority Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is an Australian statutory authority responsible for the regulation and safety oversight of Australia's shipping fleet and management of Australia's International Maritime Organization, international ...

from Canberra to Newcastle.

Later activities

In 2006, Morris publicly opposed the ALP's decision to disendorse incumbent

state MP

Bryce Gaudry Bryce James Gaudry (23 November 1942 – 4 October 2019) was an Australian politician, elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Newcastle. Gaudry was educated at Kendall District Rural School, Taree High Scho ...

, with his letters to federal Labor leader

Kim Beazley Kim Christian Beazley (born 14 December 1948) is an Australian former politician and diplomat. Since 2022 he has served as chairman of the Australian War Memorial. Previously, he was leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the ...

on the matter published in ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

''. Prior to the

2007 New South Wales state election The 2007 New South Wales state election was held on Saturday, 24 March 2007. The entire Legislative Assembly and half of the Legislative Council was up for election. The Labor Party led by Morris Iemma won a fourth four-year term against the ...

, he announced he would support Gaudry's bid for re-election as an independent. He was subsequently expelled from the party.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Allan Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia New South Wales local councillors Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Newcastle Members of the Australian House of Representatives 1940 births Living people 21st-century Australian politicians Australian people of Greek descent University of Newcastle (Australia) alumni Australian MPs 1983–1984 Australian MPs 1984–1987 Australian MPs 1987–1990 Australian MPs 1990–1993 Australian MPs 1993–1996 Australian MPs 1996–1998 Australian MPs 1998–2001