Anthony Sylvester Luchetti, AM (27 May 1904 – 11 July 1984) was a long serving Australian federal member of parliament. Born of Italian/ Irish parentage in

Lowther, New South Wales Lowther is a locality in New South Wales, Australia. The locality is in the City of Lithgow local government area, south west of the state capital, Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populo ...

, Luchetti was educated in the Catholic school system before working in jobs as varied as miner and journalist. Involved in the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms ...

(ALP) from an early age, Luchetti was elected to the Lithgow City Council and served on the New South Wales ALP Executive from 1929 to 1931. Luchetti developed a close friendship with the local federal Member of Parliament, the future

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley (; 22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951) was an Australian politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1945, follo ...

, and served as Chifley's campaign manager for the electoral

Division of Macquarie The Division of Macquarie is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for Lachlan Macquari ...

for two elections. However, following a split in the New South Wales Labor ranks led by New South Wales

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

Jack Lang, Luchetti, a Lang supporter, stood against Chifley. The Labor vote split between the two candidates, enabling the opposition

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two pri ...

candidate, John Lawson, to win the seat. The two would remain on less than cordial terms for the rest of Chifley's life. Luchetti remained active in the Labor movement, however, and following the death of Chifley in 1951, Luchetti won Labor pre-selection for the Macquarie electorate and the subsequent by-election and served as the member for Macquarie until his retirement in 1975.

References

* Day, D. (2001) ''Chifley'', Harper Collins, .

External links

* A 1959 image of Luchetti can be foun
here
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luchetti, Tony 1904 births 1984 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Lang Labor politicians Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Macquarie Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Order of Australia Australian miners 20th-century Australian politicians Australian people of Italian descent Australian people of Irish descent