John Bell Read (born 10 June 1939) is a former Australian politician who was a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

from 1983 to 1989, representing the seat of Mandurah. He later served as the Administrator of the

Cocos (Keeling) Islands ) , anthem = "''Advance Australia Fair''" , song_type = , song = , image_map = Australia on the globe (Cocos (Keeling) Islands special) (Southeast Asia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands , map_caption = ...

(an Australian external territory) from 1992 to 1994. Read was born in

Boulder, Western Australia Boulder is a suburb in the Western Australian Goldfields, east of Perth and bordering onto the city of Kalgoorlie in the Eastern Goldfields region. The Boulder (horse) Races were a significant event in early twentieth century goldfields regi ...

, to Alma (née Clifford) and George Henry Read. He attended Eastern Goldfields High School before going on to study teaching at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilitie ...

and

Claremont Teachers College Claremont Teachers College was Western Australia’s first post-secondary teaching institution. It opened in 1902 and closed in 1981, when it became a College of Advanced Education and later a campus of Edith Cowan University. The building is on ...

. Between 1959 and 1983, Read worked as a schoolteacher at various

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

and regional Western Australia. From 1970, he was a deputy principal, filling the position at schools in Boulder and Pinjarra.John Bell Read
– Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 26 May 2016. Read entered parliament at the 1983 state election, narrowly defeating Richard Shalders (the sitting Liberal member in the seat of Murray) for the new seat of Mandurah. He increased his majority at the 1986 election, but at the

1989 election The following elections occurred in the year 1989. Africa * 1989 Beninese parliamentary election * 1989 Botswana general election * 1989 Equatorial Guinean presidential election * 1989 People's Republic of the Congo parliamentary election * 19 ...

was defeated by the Liberal Party's

Roger Nicholls Roger Keith Nicholls (born 22 April 1956) is a former Australian politician. He was born in Corrigin, Western Australia, and was involved in the Royal Australian Navy and in the mining industry before entering politics. In 1989 he was elected to ...

. After leaving parliament, Read worked in various consulting and managerial positions for the state and federal governments. From December 1992 to December 1994, he served as Administrator of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, one of the

Australian Indian Ocean Territories The Australian Indian Ocean Territories is the name since 1995 of an administrative unit under the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, consisting of two island groups in the ...

. Read married Rosemary Madge Barker in 1960, with whom he five children. One of his sons, Keith John Read, was also a member of parliament.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, John 1939 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Australian schoolteachers Cocos (Keeling) Islands administrators Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly People from Boulder, Western Australia University of Western Australia alumni