Anthony John Sidoti is 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 ...

Australian politician who was a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

representing

Drummoyne Drummoyne is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Drummoyne is six kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative center for the local government area of the City of ...

since

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. He was a member of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, but moved to the crossbench as an independent in March 2021, following the announcement of a public inquiry into his property dealings by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). Prior to the ICAC announcement, Sidoti was the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Minister for Sport, Multiculturalism, Seniors and Veterans The Minister for Sport is a Minister of the Crown, minister in the Government of New South Wales with responsibilities for the administration and support for all sporting bodies in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It has often been combi ...

in the

second Berejiklian ministry The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

between April 2019 and March 2021. He stood down from his ministerial duties in September 2019 pending the potential investigation by ICAC. He was subsequently found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct. He stood down at the

2023 New South Wales state election The 2023 New South Wales state election will be held on 25 March 2023 to elect the 58th Parliament of New South Wales, including all 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly and 21 of the 42 seats in the Legislative Council. The election will be ...

Early career and background

The son of Italian immigrants, Sidoti was raised in Sydney's inner west and educated at De La Salle College, Ashfield and the Ryde College of

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

where he studied

hospitality Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de J ...

. From 1992 to 2008, Sidoti ran a function centre in

Five Dock Five Dock is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Five Dock is located 10 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. Location Fi ...

together with his family, and then was a part-time fruit merchant. Elected to

Burwood Council The Municipality of Burwood (also known as Burwood Council) is a local government area in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Mayor of the Municipality is Cr. John Faker, a member of the Labor Party. T ...

in 2008, Sidoti served as mayor from 2009 up until the 2011 state election, when he stood down as mayor, remaining as a councillor.

Political career

At the 2011 state election, Sidoti was elected with a swing of 19.4 points, and won the seat with 66.7 per cent of the

two-party-preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

vote. Sidoti's main opponent was mayor of the

City of Canada Bay The City of Canada Bay is a local government area in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The city was formed on 1 December 2000, following the merger of Concord and Drummoyne councils. The city covers an area of and as at the ...

, Angelo Tsirekas, representing the Labor Party. At the 2015 state election, Sidoti increased his two-party-preferred margin by around 1.7 points. From 22 June 2011 to 6 March 2015, he chaired the Parliamentary Privileges and Ethics Committee and served as deputy co-chair of the Social Policy Committee. From 17 October 2015 to 23 January 2017, he was parliamentary secretary for Transport, Roads, Industry, Resources and Energy and, from 1 February 2017 to 23 March 2019, was the parliamentary secretary to Cabinet. Following the 2019 state election, Sidoti was appointed Minister for Sport, Multiculturalism, Seniors and Veterans in the

, with effect from 2 April 2019.

Corrupt conduct

On 17 September 2019, Sidoti stood down from his ministerial duties pending a potential investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) into his property dealings. On 3 March 2021, ICAC announced its intention to conduct a public inquiry into those dealings. As a result, he resigned from the cabinet and moved to the crossbench as an independent. In July 2022, ICAC found that Sidoti had engaged in serious corrupt conduct by using his position to influence local councillors to benefit his family’s property interests. As of July 2022, the ICAC was now seeking advice whether to charge Sidoti with corruption.

References

External links

John Sidoti, Member of Drummoyne
–

Sidoti at NSW Liberals
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidoti, John 21st-century Australian politicians Living people Australian politicians of Italian descent Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Year of birth missing (living people) Political corruption