John Joseph Brown AO (born 19 December 1931) is a retired Australian politician. He served in the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1990, representing the Division of Parramatta for the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He held ministerial office in the Hawke Government as Minister for Administrative Services (1983–1984), Sport, Recreation and Tourism (1983–1987), and Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories (1987). Background and early career Brown was born in the western suburbs of Sydney and was educated at Christian Brothers College, Burwood, St Patrick's College, Strathfield and the University of Sydney. He was one of the founders of Brown and Hatton, a meat distribution company and helped create the Pork and Bacon Marketing Council. He has been an active member of the Meat Industry Employees Union since that time, but was also chairman of the Employers Association for five years. In 1963, he married Jan Murray, who ran a public relation consultancy from 1982 to 1995, and they have five children. Following initial reports in The Sun, Murray admitted during a 60 Minutes interview in 1987 to having sexual intercourse with Brown on his desk in his office at Parliament House in Canberra in 1983, and leaving a pair of underwear in an ashtray. A spokesperson for Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke said while Murray's comments were in "poor taste" they had nothing to do with Brown's ministerial duties. The Canberra Times reported that Murray said she had never meant for her comments to be made public after being assured by a 60 Minutes producer that they would be edited out of the program. Murray's on-screen revelation continues to be referred to occasionally in the Australian media. He was an alderman on Parramatta Council from 1977 to 1980. Federal political career In 1975, Brown entered politics when he won the Australian Labor Party nomination for the seat of Parramatta. He was soundly defeated by Liberal Phillip Ruddock in that year's Liberal landslide. However, a redistribution ahead of the 1977 election split Parramatta almost in half. The western half retained the Parramatta name and became a marginal Labor seat anchored in Labor's heartland of west Sydney. Ruddock transferred to the comfortably safe Liberal Dundas, essentially the eastern half of his old seat. Brown won the reconfigured Parramatta with a modest swing in his favour, becoming only the second Labor member ever to win it. With the election of Bob