John Hubert Plunkett QC (June 1802 – 9 May 1869[1]) was Attorney-General of New South Wales, an appointed member of the Legislative Council 1836–41, 1843–56, 1857–58 and 1861–69.

The Executive Council rejected his claimed right to the position,[7] and Supreme Court judge Alfred Stephen was appointed.

He was made a member of the Executive Council in March 1847, and in 1848, when the national school system was founded, was appointed chairman of the Board of Education.

In February 1858, on account of the Board of Education having issued regulations which Charles Cowper, then Premier, disapproved of, Plunkett was dismissed from his position as chairman and he thereupon resigned from the council.

Plunkett was again a member of the Legislative Assembly for Cumberland (North Riding) from September 1858 to April 1859 and for West Sydney from June 1859 to November 1860.

For the last two years of his life he lived much at Melbourne on account of his wife's health, and he made his last public appearance there in 1869 as secretary to the provincial council of the Roman Catholic Church.

Plunkett's remains were taken to Sydney and buried in the old Devonshire Street Cemetery, beside those of Archpriest John Joseph Therry and Archdeacon McEncroe.

John Fairfax said he was "the greatest friend of civil and religious liberty in the colony", and he was in advance of his time in his attitude to the land question, and in his advocacy of manhood suffrage.