John Cusack

John Joseph Cusack (8 August 1868 – 8 September 1956) was an Australian politician and businessman. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) for most of his career and served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (1910–1917) and House of Representatives (1929–1931). Early life Cusack was born at Bellevale near Yass, New South Wales and had some schooling in Yass. He was apprenticed at 15 to a blacksmith at Berrima. He learnt about coachbuilding in Sydney and returned to Yass in 1898 to marry Minnie Cassidy and start a coachbuilding business. He was elected to Yass Municipal Council and was mayor in 1904. Parliamentary career Cusack established a branch of the Labor League (the predecessor of the Labor Party) in Yass in the 1890s. He represented Queanbeyan from 1910 to 1913, and Albury from 1913 to 1917 in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. He was one of only four Labor members to hold the seat of Albury. Following the ALP split of 1916, he was expelled from the party for failing to support a no-confidence motion against the new government formed by ALP defector William Holman. However, he was later readmitted.