Richard Emanuel Klugman (18 January 1924 – 21 February 2011) was an Australian doctor, activist and politician. He was a member of 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) and served in 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 1969 to 1990, representing the

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

seat of

Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (minin ...

Early life

Klugman was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on 18 January 1924, the son of Ella and Bernard Klugman, Polish-born Italian nationals. His father was a Jewish businessman and the family left Austria in 1938 to escape antisemitism. He attended

Hurlstone Agricultural High School Hurlstone Agricultural High School (HAHS, colloquially as Hurlstone Ag) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Mixed-sex education, co-educational Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective and specialis ...

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 ...

, where he studied science and medicine. He worked part-time as a builder's labourer and clerk while at university. He was the president of the Sydney University Labor Club and the Australian Student Labor Federation. In 1947 he was charged with using indecent language, assaulting a policeman, and resisting arrest in relation with a demonstration outside the Dutch consulate during the

Indonesian War of Independence The Indonesian National Revolution (), also known as the Indonesian War of Independence (, ), was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during ...

. He pleaded not guilty and alleged that he was a victim of police brutality. After graduating, Klugman practised as a doctor in the Sydney suburbs of

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

and Villawood. He was an honorary officer at

Liverpool Hospital Liverpool Hospital is major district general hospital located in the South Western Sydney suburb of Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia and is a 50-minute drive from the Sydney CBD. It is the second largest hospital in New South Wales (behind ...

, Parramatta Hospital and

Royal North Shore Hospital The Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) is a major public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia, located in the suburb of St Leonards. It serves as a teaching hospital for Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney, University of Technol ...

Politics and activism

In 1969, Klugman was elected to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

as 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 ...

member for the new seat of

, a western-Sydney constituency. Klugman held the seat of Prospect until his retirement in 1990. He was the first refugee to become a federal member. In his first speech to Parliament, among other issues, he commented on the legalisation of cannabis and the removal of laws against homosexuality, abortion a, censorship and prostitution. During his time as a Member of Parliament he did not hold any ministerial offices, commenting in 1989 that "I wouldn’t make a good Minister" because of his willingness to play the "devil's advocate." He established the world's first Parliamentary Amnesty Group and was a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1973. He was one of four federal parliamentarians who left the House of Representatives in 1976 before a vote to express condolences for the recently deceased

Chairman Mao Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

. Klugman was the Chair of the Joint Select Committee on Video Material, convened in 1984 and beginning work in 1985 after New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland banned the sale and showing of X-rated videos. After retirement, Klugman was a member of the Australian National University council for 20 years. His papers are held at the National Library of Australia.

Personal life

Klugman married Karin Joseph in 1953, with whom he had one daughter. He remarried in 1964 to Kristine Barnard, with whom he had another three daughters. Their daughter Jeni was the first female

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

from New South Wales. His third marriage was to Margaret Healy. Klugman died in Sydney on 21 February 2011.

References

Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Prospect Members of the Australian House of Representatives Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to Australia 1924 births 2011 deaths People educated at Hurlstone Agricultural High School Australian MPs 1969–1972 Australian MPs 1972–1974 Australian MPs 1974–1975 Australian MPs 1975–1977 Australian MPs 1977–1980 Australian MPs 1980–1983 Australian MPs 1983–1984 Australian MPs 1984–1987 Australian MPs 1987–1990 {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub