Henry Arthur Hewson, OAM (31 December 1914 – 20 November 1999) was an Australian politician. Born in

Korumburra, Victoria Korumburra is a town in the Australian state of Victoria. It is located on the South Gippsland Highway, south-east of Melbourne, in the South Gippsland Shire local government area. At the Korumburra had an urban population of 3,639. Surround ...

, he was a dairy farmer at

Warragul Warragul is a town in Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne. Warragul lies between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Mount Baw Baw Plateau of the Great Dividing Range to the north. As of the , the town had a population of 19,85 ...

before serving in the military 1941–45. He was active in local politics as a member of Warragul Shire Council, and was elected to

Gippsland Province Gippsland Province was an electorate of the Victorian Legislative Council from November 1882 until 2006. It was based in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. Gippsland Province was created in the redistribution of provinces in 1882 wh ...

in the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Co ...

for a six-year term at the 1964 state election. In 1972, he was elected to the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

as the Country Party member for

McMillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMill ...

, despite receiving only 16.6% of the primary vote. This was one of the lowest primary votes achieved by a successful candidate, elected in a single seat electorate, in the history of Australian elections. His election was made possible by a strong flow of preferences from the Democratic Labor Party and from former

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

member Alex Buchanan, who was running as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

after losing his Liberal endorsement to Barrie Armitage. On polling day, Hewson picked up enough preferences from the DLP and Buchanan to overtake Armitage on the third count. He then won the seat on the fourth count after Armitage's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to him. Despite the Coalition agreement at federal level, relations between the main non-Labor parties in Victoria were somewhat frosty at the time. The Victorian Liberal Party Executive created an unusual three-way campaign in 1974 by fielding Armitage against Hewson. A minor controversy ensued when Hewson issued an allegedly confusing How-to-Vote Card (using Liberal colours rather than Country Party colours, and headed "Liberal-Country Party Senate Team"). Hewson was in turn defeated by Liberal candidate,

Barry Simon Barry Martin Simon (born 16 April 1946) is an American mathematical physicist and was the IBM professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Caltech, known for his prolific contributions in spectral theory, functional analysis, and no ...

, in 1975. Hewson died in 1999.

References

National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for McMillan Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia 1914 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Australian politicians People from Korumburra {{Australia-National-politician-stub