Tom Dadour

Gabriel Thomas Dadour (19 April 1925 – 17 March 2011) was an Australian politician and doctor. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for Subiaco from February 1971 to February 1986, representing the Liberal Party until 1983, when he resigned from the party and became an independent. He was also a Subiaco City Councillor from 1966 to 1978. He was known for often voting against his own party in Parliament and speaking out against his party and its leader.

Born and raised in Sydney, Dadour served in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve from April 1945 to November 1946. He then completed a medical degree at the University of Sydney before moving to Perth to start his career as a general practitioner. He became involved with the Subiaco Football Club as a sports doctor. Dadour was elected to Parliament at the 1971 state election. He worked to have the state's Local Government Act amended to require a referendum for local government boundary changes. He was outspoken in his opposition to the 1979 closure of the Perth–Fremantle railway line by his own party, and in his support for a ban on tobacco advertising. He introduced a private member's bill to ban tobacco advertising, which passed the Legislative Assembly but was narrowly defeated in the Legislative Council. After announcing his retirement from politics at the 1986 state election, Dadour endorsed the Labor Party.

Early life Dadour was born on 19 April 1925 in Waterloo, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney. He was the fourth of five children of Alexander Elias Dadour and Nabeeha Cannon Zazbeck. In March 1978, Dadour announced that he would not stand for the council election in May due to his increasing workload as a member of parliament and as a councillor.

State government Dadour joined the Liberal Party in 1970. He was nearly defeated in the 1983 state election after an unfavourable redistribution of his seat's boundaries which removed Shenton Park and added Leederville and Mount Hawthorn. Dadour was a member of the Library Committee from 1971 to 1979 and the Select Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs from August 1983 to May 1984.

Dadour became known for verbal aggression, which annoyed those within his own party, and which, in June 1973, escalated to him punching Labor MLA Mal Bryce, nineteen years his junior, on the right eyebrow while on a Parliamentary tour in Port Hedland. The following month, a royal commission was called. Dadour said his position was that prostitution should be allowed but regulated as it was inevitable that prostitution took place. In 1977, Dadour stated he supported the death penalty for heroin dealers. In November 1977, his abstention from voting led to the defeat of the government's controversial Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which would have made it harder for illiterate people to vote. The bill was particularly aimed at making it harder for Aboriginal people in the Kimberley region to vote. In 1980, he successfully prevented the government from increasing the size of the ministry from thirteen to fifteen. but was opposed by tobacco companies, newspapers and sports leagues. To allay the concerns of sports leagues, Dadour amended his bill to delay its introduction if passed until July 1983 to allow leagues more time to get different sponsors. The bill passed the Legislative Assembly despite being opposed by Premier Ray O'Connor and his cabinet, but it was defeated in the Legislative Council. In October 1983, Dadour was suspended from the Liberal Party for claiming that some politicians were bribed by the tobacco industry to oppose anti-smoking legislation. He resigned from the party that same month, becoming an independent. In 1991 a ban on tobacco advertising was put in place. The candidates to succeed Dadour were former federal Liberal member for Perth Ross McLean and future Labor premier Carmen Lawrence. The Labor party did not expect to win the seat as Lawrence was the only candidate for preselection, but the odds swung to Lawrence's favour after Dadour's shock endorsement of her. He had known Lawrence as she was a patient of his. During the campaign. Dadour took her to meetings with Catholic priests as he said they were an important part of the community. During one such meeting, he jumped to her defence on the issue of abortion.

Later life Dadour retired as a doctor in 2005. In his later years, he developed Parkinson's disease. He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery. In 1986, he was made a freeman of the City of Subiaco. Dadour was awarded the Centenary Medal on 1 January 2001 and appointed a Member of the Order of Australia at the 2001 Australia Day Honours "for service to the community of Subiaco, particularly as a general practitioner, to local government and to the Western Australian Parliament."

Family Dadour's first marriage was to Lesley Joan Clarke, on 18 July 1953 at St Margaret's Church in Nedlands. They had two daughters and two sons together. After divorcing in September 1982, Dadour married Betty Elaine Davey Douglas on 10 December 1982. He remarried Joan in 2004.