Charles Jones

Politician

1917 – 2003

73

Who was Charles Jones?

Charles Keith Jones AO was an Australian politician and government minister.

He was Minister for Transport and Minister for Civil Aviation in the Second Whitlam Ministry and Minister for Transport in the Third Whitlam Ministry.

Commonly known as "Charlie", C. K. Jones was born in Newcastle and was educated at Cooks Hill High School to the equivalent of 7th grade. He then completed an apprenticeship in boilermaking at the BHP steelworks and Newcastle Technical College. He married Doreen Wright in 1939.

He first became politically active as a member of the Boilermakers Union and, subsequently, the various metal trade unions. In the early 1940s he became a union official and a delegate to the Newcastle Trades Hall Council.

He was elected to the Newcastle City Council in 1946, and in 1956, at the age of 39, became the youngest Lord Mayor of Newcastle, a position he held until he was elected to the Division of Newcastle at the 1958 election. He held the seat until he retired in 1983.

In the Federal Australian Labor Party, he was associated with the Left faction and was a close associate of Jim Cairns and Tom Uren. He became the shadow minister for Transport and Civil Aviation following Labor's crushing defeat at the 1966 election.

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Born
Sep 12, 1917
Newcastle
Nationality
  • Australia
Profession
Died
Aug 7, 2003

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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