Michael John Hatton was an Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member of the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 from June 1996 to November 2007, representing the Division of Blaxland

Division of Blaxland

The Division of Blaxland is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. It is based in the western suburbs of Sydney, and includes the working-class suburbs of Bass Hill, Birrong, Carramar, Chester Hill, Condell Park, Fairfield East, Georges Hall, Guildford West, Old Guildford,...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

.

He was educated at the University of New South Wales

University of New South Wales

The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

. He was a school teacher before entering politics. From 1985 to 1996, he was an electorate officer for his predecessor as MP for Blaxland

Blaxland

Blaxland can refer to:* Gregory Blaxland, pioneer farmer and explorer in Australia, brother of John* Gregory Blaxland , British Army officer and author of biographies and military histories...

, Paul Keating

Paul Keating

Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...

 (Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Australia

The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

 1991-96). He entered parliament at a by-election necessitated by Keating's resignation from parliament after he lost the 1996 election to John Howard

John Howard

John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....

.

In May 2007 he lost party preselection and retired at the 2007 federal election which had seen his party return to power. This meant that the entirety of his parliamentary career equated to the entirety of his party's time in Opposition.