He was born at Ivanhoe to clerk Cecil James Newton and Gwendaline Clare Bowden.
He attended La Trobe University, where he received a Bachelor of Science, and later Hawthorn State College for a Diploma of Education.
On 27 December 1980 he married fellow schoolteacher Helen Frances Eldridge; they had one daughter.
A Labor Party member since 1974, he was vice-president of the Ashwood branch and directed the campaign for the federal seat of Chisholm in 1980.
In 1982 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Bennettswood; he was defeated in 1985.