Lewis Kent was a member of the Australian Labor Party and represented the Division of Hotham in federal parliament from 1980 to 1990.
17 Facts About Lewis Kent
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Lewis Kent was born in Yugoslavia and came to Australia via Israel after the Second World War.
3.
Lewis Kent recalled seeing "Hungarian troops blow a retired teacher's brains out with a grenade as the teacher answered a call at his front door".
4.
Lewis Kent's cousin died of typhoid in the camp, but he was able to escape after a few months and made his way to Belgrade.
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Lewis Kent had difficulties in post-war Yugoslavia and eventually left for Israel, where he joined the Israeli Communist Party and stood unsuccessfully for public office.
6.
Lewis Kent joined the Victorian Labor Party and in the late 1960s served as president of the party's New Australian Committee.
7.
Lewis Kent expressed concerns that the party's platform was still sympathetic to the White Australia policy and called for non-discriminatory immigration to be made an explicit policy plank.
8.
Lewis Kent warned of possible inter-ethnic violence if the police did not intervene, stating "ninety percent of Croats are good citizens but a small percentage are terrorist types".
9.
Lewis Kent was elected to parliament at the 1980 federal election, defeating the incumbent Liberal member Roger Johnston in the Division of Hotham.
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Lewis Kent was re-elected at the 1983,1984 and 1987 elections.
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Lewis Kent served on several parliamentary committees and joined a number of parliamentary delegations to other countries.
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Lewis Kent was a member of the Labor Left faction and came into conflict with the Hawke government on a number of occasions.
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In 1989, Lewis Kent was deselected as Labor candidate for Hotham in favour of former ACTU president Simon Crean.
14.
Lewis Kent vigorously denied their claims, describing them as a smear campaign.
15.
Lewis Kent was suspended from parliament for 24 hours for using unparliamentary language.
16.
Lewis Kent was defeated by the Liberal candidate Russell Broadbent.
17.
Lewis Kent had two children with his wife Vera, who died a few years earlier.