Richard Max Smith (born 22 February 1930) is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n politician. He represented

Pittwater Pittwater is a semi-mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, located about north of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Ce ...

in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1978 to 1986, first as a member of the Liberal Party and then as an independent. Smith was born in Gladesville to John Voyle Smith and Doris Ethel Cullen. He was educated at Parramatta High School and then the University of Sydney, and was selected as the youngest member sent to the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

's 1956 study conference at Oxford. He became a miner and colliery manager. He worked for Australian Iron and Steel from 1951 to 1962 and was superintendent of Rio Tinto from 1962 to 1967, subsequently serving as consultant mining engineer until 1974. From 1974 to 1978 he was technical and operations director of Coalex. He married Helen on 3 October 1953 and had three children; he subsequently married Sandra Simpson on 28 April 1984, and Janet Lawrence on 15 March 1998. When the state Liberal MP for

, Bruce Webster, resigned in 1978, Smith was selected as the Liberal candidate to contest the seat in the upcoming election; he had a narrow victory over Charles Wild, the Labor candidate. In 1984, he resigned from the Liberal Party to sit as an independent, and resigned from parliament altogether in 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Max 1930 births Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Independent members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly