The Honourable Gary Johns
Johns in 1994
Vice-President of the Executive Council
In office 25 March 1994 – 11 March 1996
Preceded by	Frank Walker
Succeeded by	John Moore
Member of theAustralian Parliament forPetrie
In office 11 July 1987 – 2 March 1996
Preceded by	John Hodges
Succeeded by	Teresa Gambaro
Personal details
Born	Gary Thomas Johns (1952-08-29)29 August 1952 (age 72) Melbourne, Victoria
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Labor
Alma mater	Monash University
Occupation	Writer

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

Johns was born inMelbourne on 29 August 1952.^[1] He is the youngest of four sons born to Doris (née Thompson) and Claude Johns; his father was a painter and decorator.^[2] He holds aBachelor of Economics andMaster of Arts fromMonash University. He tutored in geography atMelbourne State College.^[1]

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 secretariesDavid Combe andBob McMullan.^[2]

Johns was elected as the member forPetrie in 1987, and held it for theAustralian Labor Party until his defeat in 1996. He served as Assistant Minister for Industrial Relations from December 1993 andSpecial Minister of State andVice-President of the Executive Council from March 1994 until the defeat of theKeating government in 1996, in which he lost his seat toLiberal candidateTeresa Gambaro.^[3]

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.^[4] Johns now describes himself as a "small-l liberal".^[4]

From 1997 to 2006, he was a senior fellow at theneo-liberal/conservativethink tank theInstitute of Public Affairs (IPA). He was head of theNon-Government Organisations unit within the IPA. From 2006 to 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 theUniversity of Queensland. He was president of theBennelong Society, an organisation that advocated the provision of welfare forIndigenous Australians under the same rules as for all other Australians. From 2002 to 2004, he was appointed Associate Commissioner of the CommonwealthProductivity Commission, an Australian government policy research and advisory body,^[5] with the responsibility for an inquiry into the nationalworkers' compensation andoccupational health and safety framework.^[6]

Johns was awarded aPhD in political science in 2001 from theUniversity of Queensland, in 2002 the Fulbright Professional Award in Australian-United States Alliance Studies,Georgetown University inWashington 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 forThe Australian newspaper and the author of numerous papers and books. He writes forThe Spectator andQuadrant. His latest book isThe Burden of Culture.

In 2017, Johns was appointed by theTurnbull government as the commissioner of theAustralian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. He resigned in June 2022 following theAlbanese 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 an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.^[7] He then formed the research organisation Close the Gap Research, of which he is chairman.^[8]

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(November 2017)

• Waking up to Dreamtime: The illusion of Aboriginal self-determination. Singapore: Media Masters. 2001.
• 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.

• "Search Results | author:"Johns, Gary Thomas, 1952-"".National Library of Australia. 2 May 2021.Archived from the original on 2 May 2021.

• Young, Graham (21 September 2019)."Throw open the doors - book review".Australian Institute for Progress.Archived from the original on 26 March 2020.

• 1952 births
• Living people
• 20th-century Australian writers
• 21st-century Australian writers
• Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
• Australian columnists
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Petrie
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives
• Quadrant (magazine) people
• University of Queensland alumni
• Australian MPs 1987–1990
• Australian MPs 1990–1993
• Australian MPs 1993–1996

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