John Cornwall

John Cornwall was a member of Legislative Council in the South Australian Parliament from 1975 to 1988 and the State's health minister for six years from 1982. He was a reforming Minister of Health during the tumultuous years of the introduction of Medicare, quality and productivity criteria as markers in hospital budgets and the rapid expansion of community health centres. The philosophy that health is a state of physical and emotional wellbeing, not just the absence of illness, drove much of...See more

John Cornwall was a member of Legislative Council in the South Australian Parliament from 1975 to 1988 and the State's health minister for six years from 1982. He was a reforming Minister of Health during the tumultuous years of the introduction of Medicare, quality and productivity criteria as markers in hospital budgets and the rapid expansion of community health centres. The philosophy that health is a state of physical and emotional wellbeing, not just the absence of illness, drove much of his reform agenda. Following his resignation from politics in 1988 Rex Jory, the senior political reporter at The Advertiser, described him as 'the most innovative and effective health minister in SA history'. Cornwall was born in Melbourne in January 1935, grew up in Bendigo and completed his school education at Xavier College in Melbourne. He graduated with a degree in veterinary science from the University of Queensland in 1957 and conducted practices in country Victoria and South Australia ('all creatures great and small') before moving with his family to a small animal practice in Adelaide in 1970. After leaving politics he became a senior executive for various not for profits in Sydney, including the Australian Veterinary Association and the Australian Youth Foundation. In 1997 he accepted an appointment as managing consultant of the fledgling Delta Society Australia, 'promoting positive interaction between people and companion animals', where he developed Delta's national therapy dogs program. In retirement he spent seven years in a voluntary capacity as President and Executive Director of the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Agency. He wrote his first book about his years in the Bannon government Just for the Record (Wakefield Press) in 1989. He lives in Sydney with his wife Patrice. They have a son, six daughters, six grandsons and two foster grandsons. See less