19 Facts About Sam Piantadosi

Samuel Mathew Piantadosi was an Australian union official and politician.

Sam Piantadosi's election made him the first post-war Italian migrant to be elected to the Parliament of Western Australia.

Sam Piantadosi was re-elected in 1989, but resigned from the Labor Party in 1996, late in his second term, after reading newspaper reports that party figures were suggesting he would retire.

Sam Piantadosi subsequently resigned from the Legislative Council several months short of the conclusion of his term in an unsuccessful attempt to contest the Legislative Assembly seat of Yokine as an independent at the 1996 state election.

Sam Piantadosi returned to politics in 2007 as a councillor and later Deputy Mayor of the Town of Bassendean, and held the latter role until his death.

Sam Piantadosi's family migrated to Western Australia in 1982, and settled in Northbridge.

Sam Piantadosi was educated at St Brigid's Primary School, Christian Brothers' College and Leederville Technical College.

Sam Piantadosi worked for twelve years as an accounts clerk and office manager with the United Fruit and Vegetable Growers Co-operative, and undertook two years' national service in the Army from 1966 to 1968.

Sam Piantadosi became secretary of the Water Supply Union in 1979, and after that union amalgamated into the new Hospital Services and Miscellaneous Workers Union in 1981, was elected president of the new union, a role he held until his election to parliament.

Sam Piantadosi was the founding convenor of the WA Trades and Labor Council's Migrant Workers Committee, the founding secretary of the North Perth Migrant Resource Centre and a member of its management committee, a member of the State Advisory Panel for Interpreters and Translators and the founding chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia.

Sam Piantadosi was re-elected for the new region of North Metropolitan with the introduction of proportional representation in 1989 from the third position on the Labor ticket, and again in 1993 from the second position.

Sam Piantadosi served on the Joint Printing Committee, the Standing Committee on Estimates and Financial Operations, the Joint House Committee, and the Standing Orders Committee.

Sam Piantadosi resigned from the Labor Party in 1996 after reading media reports suggesting that party figures had earmarked him to retire, and sat as an independent in the Legislative Council.

Sam Piantadosi then resigned from the Legislative Council several months short of the conclusion of his term in order to contest the new Legislative Assembly seat of Yokine as an independent at the 1996 state election.

Sam Piantadosi campaigned on law and order issues and advocated the reintroduction of hanging.

Sam Piantadosi subsequently finished a distant third, with Hames winning the seat.

Sam Piantadosi served as secretary of the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry from 1999 to 2002, and as a committee member of the International Business Council of Western Australia.

Sam Piantadosi acknowledged that he had "made some mistakes" in processing paperwork with the Department of Immigration, but strongly denied allegations made by Randall that he had "helped himself to clients' funds".

Sam Piantadosi re-entered politics in 2007, winning election as a councillor for the North Ward of the Town of Bassendean, and was elected deputy mayor in 2009, a position which he held until his death.