page_title: Tom Uren
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Tom Uren / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: A 1963 black and white portrait of Tom Uren, MHR for Reid
context_page_description: Thomas Uren AC was an Australian politician and Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1975–77. Uren served as the Member for Reid in the Australian House of Representatives from 1958–90, being appointed Minister for Urban and Regional Development, Minister for Territories and Local Government and Minister for Local Government and Administrative Services. He helped establish the heritage and conservation movement in Australia and, in particular, worked to preserve the heritage of inner Sydney.
context_section_description: Uren won Labor pre-selection in 1957 for the House of Representatives seat of Reid in western Sydney, which he won at the 1958 election. He represented the electorate until his retirement before the 1990 election, thirty-two years later.
  Uren was a strong supporter of the left wing of the Labor Party, led at first by Eddie Ward and later by Jim Cairns, and was sometimes accused of being a secret communist, an accusation he denied. He campaigned against the Vietnam War, conscription and nuclear testing.
  In 1969 Uren was appointed by Gough Whitlam to the Opposition front bench with responsibility for housing and urban affairs, which became Uren's passion for the rest of Uren's career. Uren was Minister for Urban and Regional Development in the Whitlam government from 1972 to 1975. He established the Australian Heritage Commission and consequent compilation of the Register of the National Estate. In Sydney, Uren promoted the restoration and re-use of derelict inner city areas such as the Glebe Estate and Woolloomooloo, the reclamation of Duck Creek and the creation of the Chipping Norton Lakes Scheme.  He was a key player in the creation of the Towra Point Nature Reserve.  Despite his reputation as a firebrand, Uren proved a highly competent minister and was one of the few ministers to emerge from the fall of the Whitlam government with his reputation enhanced.
  In 1976 Uren was elected Deputy Leader of the Labor Party under Whitlam as Opposition Leader, but after the 1977 election, when Bill Hayden was elected Leader, Uren was replaced by Lionel Bowen. Uren succeeded Jim Cairns as leader of the ALP Left, and bitterly opposed Bob Hawke's rise to the Labor leadership. As a result, when the Hawke government won the 1983 election, Uren, despite being a former deputy leader of the party, was omitted from the Cabinet – Uren was given the junior portfolio of Minister for Territories and Local Government, and from 1984 to 1987 Local Government and Administrative Services.  He became Father of the House of Representatives in 1984.
  Uren stood down from the ministry after the 1987 election and retired from Parliament in 1990. He and Queensland's Clarrie Millar were the last combat veterans of World War II to serve in the House of Representatives, though Russ Gorman would serve until 1996. In retirement he continued to campaign for various causes, including the protection of Sydney Harbour and its foreshores. Uren opposed Australia's participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
caption: Uren in 1963.
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