John Bell Read (born 10 June 1939) is an Australian former politician who was a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

from 1983 to 1989, representing the seat of Mandurah. He later served as the

Administrator Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * N ...

of the

Cocos (Keeling) Islands The Cocos (Keeling) Islands (), officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (; ), are an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and rel ...

(an Australian external territory) from 1992 to 1994. Read was born in

Boulder, Western Australia Boulder is a suburb of Kalgoorlie in the Western Australian Goldfields, east of Perth. The Boulder (horse) Races were a significant event in early twentieth century goldfields region history. The town maintained its separation from Kalgoorl ...

, to Alma (née Clifford) and George Henry Read. He attended Eastern Goldfields High School before going on to study teaching at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

and

Claremont Teachers College Claremont Teachers College was Western Australia's first post-secondary teaching institution. It opened in 1902 and closed in 1981, when it became a College of Advanced Education then a campus of Edith Cowan University before being acquired by ...

. Between 1959 and 1983, Read worked as a schoolteacher at various

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and regional Western Australia. From 1970, he was a deputy

principal Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the head of a school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level in the UK Civil Ser ...

, filling the position at schools in Boulder and Pinjarra.John Bell Read
– Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 26 May 2016. Read entered parliament at the 1983 state election, narrowly defeating Richard Shalders (the sitting Liberal member in the seat of Murray) for the new seat of Mandurah. He increased his majority at the 1986 election, but at the 1989 election was defeated by the Liberal Party's

Roger Nicholls Roger Keith Nicholls (born 22 April 1956) is a former Australian politician. He was born in Corrigin, Western Australia, and was involved in the Royal Australian Navy and in the mining industry before entering politics. In 1989 he was elected t ...

. After leaving parliament, Read worked in various consulting and managerial positions for the state and federal governments. From December 1992 to December 1994, he served as Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, one of the

Australian Indian Ocean Territories The Australian Indian Ocean Territories is the name since 1995 of an administrative unit under the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, consisting of two island groups in the In ...

. Read married Rosemary Madge Barker in 1960, with whom he five children. One of his sons, Keith John Read, was also a member of parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, John 1939 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Australian schoolteachers Cocos (Keeling) Islands administrators Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly People from Boulder, Western Australia University of Western Australia alumni