Graham Frederick Richardson (27 September 1949 – 8 November 2025) was an Australian Labor Party politician who was a senator for New South Wales from 1983 to 1994 and served as a cabinet minister in both the Hawke and Keating governments. He was later a media commentator, public speaker and political lobbyist.
During his time in the Senate, Richardson was often referred to as a "power broker" within the Labor Right faction. Prior to entering parliament, Richardson was a Labor Party branch organiser and was the general secretary of the New South Wales branch of the party from 1976 to 1983.
After retiring from politics, Richardson became a political commentator for Sky News Australia. He had previously hosted the weekly commentary program Richo. of Frederick "Fred" James Richardson and Catherine "Peggy" Maud Richardson (née Graham), who were, respectively, the New South Wales state secretary and office manager of the Amalgamated Postal and Telecommunications Union. Raised Catholic, he was influenced as an adolescent by the factional fights that arose during the 1955 Labor split. During his time as secretary, he helped secure a 13-seat increase for Neville Wran's Labor Government at the 1978 New South Wales state election.
Influence of Daniel Casey
Marrying Cheryl Gardner in 1973, Richardson described the rigours of his early married life and union work to The National Times Alan Ramsey in October 1983:
Richardson later told the Woodward Royal Commission that in 1973 he met Daniel Casey, a senior figure in Labor right-wing politics, and regarded him as a friend, drank with him at the Sackville Hotel in Rozelle, near Balmain, borrowed $2,000 from him, and paid it back by cheque in two instalments. Again, Ramsay reports Richardson as saying: Richardson's links with Casey were brought to public notice through the reconvening of the Woodward Royal Commission in 1980 due to allegations that Casey had funnelled $20,000, alleged to be a product of gambling and drugs, into the New South Wales Labor Party. Richardson told the commission on 28 March 1980 that Casey had not donated $20,000 to the Party, and the Commission found no evidence against Casey. Richardson was also instrumental in the 1983 coup that led to Bob Hawke succeeding Hayden as Leader of the Opposition, which ultimately led to Hawke becoming prime minister.
Enmore branch and factional fights
During Richardson's time as general secretary, there were significant battles over factional control of a number of inner city Labor branches. Richardson, alleging that he had been defamed, commenced legal action that was eventually settled out of court in 2007 in Richardson's favour.
Richardson groomed his successor for general secretary, Stephen Loosley, who took over in 1983 following Richardson's successful nomination for the Senate.
Parliamentary career
Richardson was preselected as a candidate for election to the Australian Senate following the retirement of Senator Tony Mulvihill. As the Hawke Labor opposition defeated the Fraser–Anthony Liberal–National coalition, Labor retained its five Senate seats in New South Wales, with Richardson polling the third highest quota for Labor at the 1983 double dissolution federal election. At age 33, he was the youngest ever senator elected at the time and initially sat on Senate committees on electoral reform, regulations and ordinances, finance and government operations and estimates in the first term of parliament. In January 1988, he was elevated to Cabinet as the Minister for the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories, replacing John Brown. As Minister for the Environment, Richardson also advocated for and was successful in inscribing the Daintree Rainforest and surrounding areas on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988, and a protected status for Kakadu National Park, prior to inscribing Stage 2 of Kakadu NP on the World Heritage List in 1987. Some media commentators speculated that Richardson's motives for these changes were driven, not by a concern for the environment and heritage of the lands, but by purely political motives:
As Minister for Sport, Richardson oversaw the merging of the Australian Institute of Sport into the Australian Sports Commission and the Drugs in Sport Senate Inquiry which led to the establishment of the Australian Sports Drug Agency in 1990.
In 1990, a looming tight election saw Richardson tasked with responsibility to attract second-preference votes from the Australian Democrats and other environmental parties. Richardson claimed this as a major factor in the government's narrow re-election in 1990.
1990–1993
Richardson felt that the importance of his contribution to Labor's victory would automatically entitle him to the ministerial portfolio of his choiceTransport and Communications. He was shocked, however, at what he perceived as Hawke's ingratitude in allocating him initially Defence, and then later, Social Security instead.
Prior to Richardson being appointed Minister for Social Security, he was offered the post of high commissioner in London. It was believed that Hawke wanted Richardson out of politics altogether.
Richardson vowedin a telephone conversation with Peter Barron, a former Hawke political stafferto do "whatever it takes" to "get" Hawke. He immediately transferred his allegiance to Keating and subsequently claimed credit for playing a vital role in Keating's campaign for the leadership as a numbers man. Interviewed by John Laws a few months following the announcement of the fourth Hawke ministry, Richardson commented on his new portfolio:
Richardson's switch to support Keating helped the latter to become prime minister in December 1991. – earning him the nickname, Minister for Channel Nine – due to his close relationship with media magnate, Kerry Packer.
In May 1992, Richardson was forced to resign his commission as a minister following revelations that he had used his position and influence to help his cousin by marriage, Gregory Symons. Symons had been arrested in the Marshall Islands for forging government documents relating to a migration scam and was later subsequently jailed. The event was known as the Marshall Islands affair. A judicial inquiry was necessary to resolve allegations of ministerial impropriety where it was alleged that Richardson attempted to help Symons avoid penalty. Richardson sat out the remainder of this term of parliament on the backbench. In a highly publicised tour, of the Northern Territory and following the Mabo decision and the lodging of the Wik claim, Richardson promised to make health care the key components of a new social justice package being negotiated with Aboriginal Australians. Richardson went on national television and said that $1.3 billion was needed in new funding and that he would deliver it. Mike Codd, Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under Hawke described Richardson during his term as Minister for Health as being "passionate about Aboriginal health. Genuinely passionate. He could have achieved an awful lot in that portfolio, but he had to resign."
Four weeks later, on 25 March 1994, Richardson resigned both positions and retired from parliament, citing ill-health. He also authored his memoirs titled Whatever it Takes and published by Bantam Books in 1994. For the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney he was the chairman of the Olympic ticketing operations, mayor of the Olympic village and had a seat on the Sydney Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (SOCOG).
In 1999, as chairman of the Olympics ticketing operations, Richardson oversaw a deal in which over 500,000 selected tickets were withheld from the public ticket lottery and reserved for high-paying package-deal customers. This resulted in considerable public criticism at the time and the tickets were eventually made available to the general public.
He continued a role as a broker in other aspects of New South Wales public life, including the high-profile contract dispute between the National Rugby League player Sonny Bill Williams and his club, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in 2008. Richardson was influential in the election of Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles as leader and deputy leader of the Labor Party, respectively.
Cash for comment
Richardson was implicated in the "cash for comment" scandal in Australian radio broadcasting, where prominent radio personalities – such as John Laws and Alan Jones – were found to have been promoting certain companies while on the companies' payroll and keeping the deals secret from listeners to make it look like the comments were genuine opinion or editorial pieces, or that they had demanded payments from companies in exchange for refraining from making negative comments. Richardson was being paid by Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), and spruiked for PBL-owned companies the Nine Network and Crown Casino during his radio show.
Tax evasion
In 2006, Richardson became embroiled in allegations of tax evasion involving Rene Rivkin. On 27 September 2006, Justice James Allsop, of the Federal Court, released a document showing that Richardson had an undeclared Swiss bank account containing $1.4 million.
He was one of the shareholders of the Offset Alpine Printing company. In October 2008, Richardson agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to end his ongoing A$2.3 million dispute with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The ATO took action against Richardson in 2005 after Rivkin, a stockbroker, had told Swiss investigators that Rivkin, businessman Trevor Kennedy and Richardson were the secret owners of a $27 million stake in Offset Alpine. The ATO had sought $700,000 that it claimed was owed in unpaid taxes, along with a $1.6 million interest and penalty payment.
From 2013, Richardson was given a second program on Sky News co-hosting with Alan Jones named Richo + Jones. The episode of Richo + Jones on 22 April 2014 was the twentieth most watched show on subscription television, reaching 39,000 viewers, and was the channel's second highest broadcast that day. An episode on 17 June, featuring a live interview with Clive Palmer, was the seventeenth-most watched show on subscription television and the most watched broadcast on Sky News with 43,000 viewers. Richo finished broadcasting in 2021. He married Amanda Richardson in 2007, with whom he had another son, D'Arcy.
Health and illnesses
Richardson was diagnosed in 1999 with chondrosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, and had five major tumours removed in three operations, the last in 2012.
Seven months of chemotherapy failed to shrink another tumour on his pelvic wall. His doctors were concerned that as it became bigger it could invade his organs. They told him that he required radical surgery, known as pelvic exenteration. Richardson was quoted as saying: "They say it's all got to come out – bowel, bladder, prostate, rectum – the lot."
In April 2016, Richardson temporarily stepped down from his two Sky News programs to undergo major surgery. Weeks after the operation had occurred, it was reported that he suffered breathing difficulties and was moved back to the intensive care unit. Richardson returned to Sky News after a two-month post-surgery recovery period in time to cover the 2016 federal election on 2 July 2016.
Richardson died in his Sydney residence at approximately 3:50 am on 8 November 2025, at the age of 76 after sustained influenza and pneumonia.