Wilfred George Petersen was an Australian politician, affiliated with the Labor Party and elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
14 Facts About George Petersen
2.
George Petersen was educated at Bundaberg State High School, but owing to hard financial times left at age 15.
3.
George Petersen left in 1956 after Khrushchev's Secret Speech, which denounced Stalin.
4.
Consequently, George Petersen was preselected as the Labor candidate for and was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Kembla in 1968.
5.
George Petersen represented this electorate until the 1971 election, when he moved to the seat of Illawarra.
6.
George Petersen was often outspoken even in his own party, speaking out for politically unpopular causes such as prison reform, homosexual law reform, legalised abortion, the Vietnam War, unions and the environment.
7.
In 1970, George Petersen called for a public inquiry into conditions in New South Wales prisons.
8.
George Petersen defended the Ananda Marga Three after their conviction for the 1978 Sydney Hilton bombing, and was later vindicated when they were pardoned in 1985.
9.
One particular issue George Petersen championed was that of Gay rights and emancipation.
10.
Indeed, it was George Petersen who initiated in April 1981 the first attempt in New South Wales to bring about Gay law reform in the form of an amendment to the 'Crimes Amendment Act 1981' that would have legalised consenting acts between adults.
11.
George Petersen did not appeal the ruling under threat of expulsion from the party.
12.
Undeterred, in November 1981, George Petersen introduced a private members bill which sought to decriminalise homosexual acts in NSW as well as equalise the age of consent to 16.
13.
George Petersen refused to support it and crossed the floor to vote against the government's Workers Compensation Act, which he described as "vicious, anti-working class legislation".
14.
Although, at age 66, George Petersen had intended to retire at the next election, his principled exit from the ALP led him to run one more time at the 1988 election.