Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

Today I would like to take the opportunity to celebrate the life of John 'Curly' Nixon, a Northern Territory resident who is gravely ill. Curly is an iconic figure in the history of Labor movement in the Northern Territory, and, indeed, many would say he is the heart of it.

He was born in 1929 and arrived in Darwin in 1949. He served in Korea and then came back to the Northern Territory. He went to work in Alice Springs and became a delegate for the North Australian Workers Union, and then moved to Darwin where he became president of the Waterside Workers Federation and of the Trades and Labor Council of the Northern Territory, which is where I got to know him.

He has been a fixture for all of my life in the Northern Territory, which is now over 40 years. He was a fixture at annual conferences of the Labor Party, fearlessly calling members to account, including chief ministers and ministers—it did not matter who. He was never afraid to speak out and he was a man of great opinions. In the 70s I worked closely with Curly. He was the president of the Trades and Labor Council and I was the assistant secretary. He campaigned hard for land rights and against uranium mining. He was always leading the struggle for workers' rights and the rights of minorities.

He is a wonderful family man. His wife, Jenny, and his three children—Susan, Kath and Tracey—are by his side. I hope he lives to see me again; I would like to talk to him before he goes. I want to commend to the House his great contribution to the life of the Northern Territory.

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