Joe Fitzgerald

Joseph Francis Fitzgerald (6 February 1912 – 1 November 1985) was an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for the Sydney seat of Phillip from 1949 to 1955 and a member of the Australian Senate for New South Wales from 1961 to 1974.

Fitzgerald was born in Sydney and educated at Christian Brothers College, Waverley and Paddington Junior Technical School.

Fitzgerald was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1949 federal election and re-elected in 1952 and 1954. He was referred to as "one of [the] most convinced supporters" of left-wing Labor leader H. V. Evatt and staunchly defended him in the tensions leading up to the 1955 Labor split. He vocally opposed an attempted spill against Evatt in late 1954, and became secretary to the Parliamentary Labor Party in 1955. He was the unsuccessful Labor candidate for his old House seat in 1958.

In 1961, he was elected to the Senate after winning top position on the Labor ticket. In 1967, he was relegated to third position on the Labor Senate ticket after what Kerry Sibraa described as "the most keenly fought preselections in New South Wales Labor Party history", but unexpectedly won re-election anyway. He suffered a serious stroke in 1971 and retired due to ill health in 1974.

After his Senate retirement, he served as a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Handicapped from 1974 to 1980. He was made a life member of the Labor Party in 1979. He died in 1985.