John Planta Hannaford is a former Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician. Born in Goulburn

Goulburn, New South Wales

Goulburn is a provincial city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Goulburn Mulwaree Council Local Government Area. It is located south-west of Sydney on the Hume Highway and above sea-level. On Census night 2006, Goulburn had a population of 20,127 people...

, the son of William Henry Planta and Amy Frances Hannaford, he became a lawyer, having studied at the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

 in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

. He commenced legal articles in 1971. On 6 April 1974 he married Denise Lorraine Thorburn, with whom he had a daughter and two sons.

Hannaford was a member of the Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

, having held many positions including Regional President, State Executive member, Chairman of State Convention and Chairman of the Constitution Standing Committee. In 1984, he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council

New South Wales Legislative Council

The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...

. In 1990 he was appointed Minister for State Development, moving to Health and Community Services in 1991 and Attorney General

Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 and Industrial Relations in 1992. Later that year, he was also appointed Vice-President of the Executive Council. In 1993 he moved from Industrial Relations to Justice. He was Leader of the House for one day on 22 October 1992, and was leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council following the Labor Party's win at the 1995 state election

New South Wales state election, 1995

Elections to the 51st Parliament of New South Wales were held on Saturday 25 March 1995. All seats in the Legislative Assembly and half the seats in the Legislative Council were up for election. The minority Liberal Party of Australia-led Coalition government of Premier John Fahey was defeated by...

. Hannaford resigned in 2000 and was replaced by Greg Pearce

Greg Pearce

Greg Pearce is currently presenter of Nine News Perth, a position he has held since early 2008.Originally a journalist with the ABC Greg became best known as presenter of the Ten News bulletin for Perth, prior to that he had been a news presenter for Seven News in Melbourne and had a short stint...

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