Daryl Melham

Daryl Melham (born 26 November 1954) is an Australian former politician. He was a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives representing the Division of Banks in New South Wales from 1990 to 2013.

Early life and education Melham was born in Sydney, to a family of Lebanese descent and studied law and economics at the University of Sydney, earning an LL.B. and a B.Ec.

Career

Legal career Melham was a barrister and solicitor and a public defender before entering politics. He was vice-president of the New South Wales Labor Party from 1999 until 2002. Melham also spoke out against the Howard government's changes to the rules concerning political donations, which allowed donations of up to 10,000 to be given to political parties without public disclosure. Melham was quoted as saying in May 2006: "We're going to have the best politicians money can buy, but we won't see [how much]". Following the 2010 election, Melham's usually high margin in Banks was reduced to a low 1.5%. He lost the seat at the 2013 federal election against the Liberal candidate, David Coleman.