James Richard Small (22 September 1933 – 29 October 2021) was an Australian politician. He was the National Party member for Murray in 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 1985 to 1999. Small was born at Bondi in Sydney. He was educated at

Deniliquin Deniliquin () is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, close to the border with Victoria. It is the largest town in the Edward River Council local government area. Deniliquin is located at the intersection of the Riveri ...

and underwent

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

1954–56. He became a bank clerk and then primary producer, and married Judith on 15 October 1955 (they had four children: two sons and two daughters). He was active in the local community and in the local branch of the Country Party for many years. In 1984, following the resignation of the member for the local state seat of Murray,

Tim Fischer Timothy Andrew Fischer (3 May 1946 – 22 August 2019) was an Australian politician and diplomat who served as leader of the National Party from 1990 to 1999. He was Deputy Prime Minister in the Howard Government from 1996 to 1999. Fischer ...

, to contest the federal seat of

Farrer Farrer may refer to People * Alisha Farrer (born 1943), Australian actress and model * Austin Farrer (1904–1968), English theologian, philosopher, and friend of C. S. Lewis * Buster Farrer (1936-), South African cricketer * Claude Farrer (1862 ...

, Small was selected as the Nationals' candidate for the by-election. He was elected without difficulty, defeating his only opponent,

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

candidate Ray Brooks, with a 12.96% margin. He held the seat easily until 1999, when it was combined with the solid

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 ...

seat of

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. I ...

to create the new seat of Murray-Darling, a marginal National seat. In the event, both Small and Broken Hill MP Bill Beckroge retired, and the seat was won by Labor. Small retired for a number of years on his property in Deniliquin and died aged 88 after health complications on 29 October 2021.

References

1933 births 2021 deaths National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Politicians from Sydney {{Australia-National-politician-stub