John Pyke

John Richard Pyke (born 28 August 1940) is an Australian physicist and a former university law lecturer. In retirement he still writes about Constitutional Law. He was a Queensland Senate candidate at the 2001 and 2010 Australian Federal Election.

Family Pyke was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the first son of three children born to educator Lawrence Pyke and his wife Mavis (née Clarke). He is the grandson of the teacher, journalist and author, Lillian Maxwell Pyke (1881–1927).

Education From 1952 until 1957, Pyke was educated at Newington College, where his father was Headmaster. He is a BSc from the University of Sydney, an LLB from the University of New South Wales and an LLM from the University of Sydney.

Political candidate In 2001 Pyke ran for election to the Senate on a Queensland ticket for Republican Party of Australia. At the 2010 Federal election Pyke campaigned for governments to impose stricter limits on the numbers of poker machines allowed per State and for limits on the feed rate and to keep up the pressure on all governments to adopt the Productivity Commission's recommendations, and progressively do more to reduce governments' dependence on gambling taxes.