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Joseph Martin (Joe) Riordan (1930–2012)

This article was published:

Joe Riordan, 1960

Joe Riordan, 1960

University of Melbourne Archives, 11343/75742

Joseph Martin (Joe) Riordan (1930-2012) clerk, trade union official and parliamentarian

Birth: 27 February 1930 at Sydney, New South Wales, son of Martin Joseph Riordan (1892-1970), tramway employee, and Anne Therese (Annie), née O’Driscoll (1900-1981). Marriage: 1955 at Redfern, Sydney, to Patricia Agnes Watkins. They had two daughters and four sons. Death: 19 November 2012 in Sydney. Religion: Catholic. 

  • Grew up in Zetland, South Sydney. Educated at Patrician Brothers’ School at Waterloo, and Marist Brothers’ Marcellin College, Randwick. His first job was as a mail boy at the Email factory in South Sydney.
  • Joined Australian Labor Party in 1950. Member of State Council. Assistant secretary of the Federated Clerks’ Union (FCU), NSW branch, in 1952-1954; secretary State branch 1954-1958. Federal secretary of the FCU from 1958 until he resigned in 1973.
  • There was an expansion of Federal Award coverage and improvement in Federal Award during his term as Federal secretary and Industrial Advocate. He was very active in removing Communist executive of the union.
  • Executive member of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1963 to 1967. Member of the ACTU wages and arbitration committees, 1962-1972. Granted life membership of Clerks’ Union in 1969.
  • Elected member of the Federal House of Representatives for the NSW seat of Phillip from 1972 to 1975. Minister for Housing and Construction from June 1975 until the government was dismissed by the Governor General in November that year.
  • After Labor’s defeat in 1975 and the loss of his parliamentary seat he returned to work as a union advocate. He was vice-chairman of Electricity Commission of NSW. The Wran government appointed him director of the NSW Department of Industrial Relations from 1982 to 1986. Senior Deputy President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission from 1986 to 1995 (retired). He was chairman of NSW WorkCover from 1997 to 2004.
  • Riordan was a staunch Catholic. Member, Randwick ALP and Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club.
  • Appointed AO in 1995 for service to industrial relations, to social justice and to the community”.

Sources
Labor Year Book, 1973; Clerk, July 1963, December 1969, February 1973 p 1; Workplace, Autumn 1995, pp 7-10.

Additional Resources and Scholarship

  • profile, Canberra Times, 4 June 1975, p 2

Citation details

'Riordan, Joseph Martin (Joe) (1930–2012)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/riordan-joseph-martin-joe-34669/text43614, accessed 27 June 2025.

© Copyright People Australia, 2012