Alan Cadman

Cadman was born in Sydney and studied agriculture at the University of New South Wales. He was an orchardist and company director before entering politics.[1]

Despite his long tenure, Cadman was only considered for ministerial preferment twice. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister (Malcolm Fraser) 1981–83 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business 1997–98. In 1992 he was one of a group of Coalition members of parliament who founded the Lyons Forum, a conservative ginger group.[2]

Cadman was challenged for preselection ahead of the 2007 election by Alex Hawke. However, on 16 June 2007, Cadman withdrew from the preselection contest, and later announced his current term would be his last.[3] He was to later condemn the circumstances under which he lost preselection to Hawke. Specifically, he accused Hawke of engaging in massive branch-stacking to ensure he would win the preselection contest for this comfortably safe Liberal seat.[4]

Cadman formally retired on 17 October, when the House was dissolved ahead of the election. At the time of his retirement, he was tied with Prime Minister John Howard, the member for neighbouring Bennelong, as the second-longest serving member of the House of Representatives. Both Cadman and Howard had first been elected in 1974; only Philip Ruddock had served in the House longer than Cadman and Howard.

• Alan Cadman's official site