John Aquilina

[2] Elected as Member for Blacktown in 1981, Aquilina held a number of junior portfolios including chair of various committees before being appointed Minister for Natural Resources in the Wran government in 1986.

[2][7] In 1982 John Aquilina wrote in the Daily Mirror that it was his electorate's and his personal view that homosexuality should not be decriminalised in New South Wales and he would vote against it in any case, contrary to the position of his party.

Gay rights activists Garry Wotherspoon and Fabian LoSchiavo confronted him with a petition with 132 against his stance, which was shown on ABC's Four Corners programme.

[8][9] Nevertheless, on May 22, 1984, Aquilina voted along party lines for the Neville Wran private member's bill that decriminalised same-sex relationships.

On this, the Police Commissioner contradicted Aquilina's version of events, and the boy's family subsequently threatened to sue the Government.

[17] Aquilina was later the subject of an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigation that explored possible false statements to the media and political interference in police procedures.

However, Aquilina relinquished the Education and Training portfolio in late 2001 and was shifted to the Ministries of Land and Water Conservation, and Fair Trading.

On 28 February 2008, Aquilina made a private members statement, reaffirming the Labor Party's commitment to build a railbridge overpass at the current level crossing at Garfield Road East, Riverstone.

There has been much scepticism whether the bridge will be built, particularly from the conservative side of politics, as Aqulina concludes in his speech "... by stating emphatically once again that the Government will go ahead with the elimination of the level crossing and the construction of the overpass despite the claims by the Member for Hawkesbury"[19] As at 15 February 2025, the railway overpass is yet to be constructed with planning still under way.