Gary Johns

Gary Thomas Johns (born 29 August 1952) is an Australian writer and former politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1987 to 1996, holding the Queensland seat of Petrie for the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He served as a minister in the Keating government.

Early life
Johns was born in Melbourne on 29 August 1952. He is the youngest of four sons born to Doris (Thompson) and Claude Johns; his father was a painter and decorator. He holds a Bachelor of Economics and Master of Arts from Monash University. He tutored in geography at Melbourne State College.

Political career
Johns joined the ALP in 1972. He worked as an organiser with the national secretariat of the ALP from 1978 to 1982, working under national secretaries David Combe and Bob McMullan.

Johns was elected as the member for Petrie in 1987, and held it for the Australian Labor Party until his defeat in 1996. He served as Assistant Minister for Industrial Relations from December 1993 and Special Minister of State and Vice-President of the Executive Council from March 1994 until the defeat of the Keating government in 1996, in which he lost his seat to Liberal candidate Teresa Gambaro.

Later career
Since his defeat, Johns has drifted from the ALP and has been critical of his old party. Johns told Brett Evans that he might still be a member of the ALP but Evans says that in Johns' heart he has moved on from the ALP. Johns now describes himself as a "small-l liberal".

From 1997 to 2006, he was a senior fellow at the neo-liberal/conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). He was head of the Non-Government Organisations unit within the IPA. From 2006-2009, Johns worked with a consultancy firm, ACIL Tasman. In 2009, he was appointed Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Australian Catholic University's Public Policy Institute. In 2012, he was appointed a visiting fellow at QUT Business School. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland. He was president of the Bennelong Society, an organisation that advocated the provision of welfare for Indigenous Australians under the same rules as for all other Australians. From 2002-2004 he was appointed Associate Commissioner of the Commonwealth Productivity Commission, an Australian government policy research and advisory body, with the responsibility for an inquiry into the national workers’ compensation and occupational health and safety framework.

He was awarded a PhD in political science in 2001 from the University of Queensland, in 2002 the Fulbright Professional Award in Australian-United States Alliance Studies, Georgetown University in Washington D.C., and in 2003 the Centenary Medal for ‘service to Australian society through the advancement of economic, social and political issues’.

He has been a columnist for The Australian newspaper and the author of numerous papers and books. He writes for The Spectatorand Quadrant. His latest book is The Burden of Culture

In 2017, Johns was appointed by the Turnbull government as the commissioner of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. He resigned in June 2022 following the Albanese Government's election to office.

In 2023, Johns was chairman of Recognise a Better Way, a group arguing the "No" case regarding the Albanese government's proposal for Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

He is chairman of Close the Gap Research

Books

 * Aboriginal Self-determination: The Whiteman's Dream. Connor Court, 2011.
 * Right Social Justice. Connor Court, 2012.
 * Really Dangerous Ideas. Connor Court, 2013.
 * Recognize What? Connor Court, 2014.
 * The Charity Ball. Connor Court, 2014.
 * No Contraception, No Dole: Tackling Intergenerational Welfare. Connor Court, 2016.
 * Throw Open the Doors: The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Connor Court, 2016.
 * "Your Body Belongs to the Nation" & Other Public Health Lobby Errors. Connor Court, 2016.
 * The Burden of Culture. Quadrant Books, 2022.
 * The Burden of Culture. Quadrant Books, 2022.