John Samuel Yu (Chinese: 余森美; pinyin: Yú Sēnměi; born 12 December 1934) is a Chinese-born Australian paediatrician who was CEO of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children from 1979 until 1997.
[3] He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1989 and was named Australian of the Year in 1996.
[7] Yu, as CEO of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, publicly supported a bill introduced by Alan Corbett in the New South Wales Legislative Council to protect children from abuse and excessive physical chastisement.
The bill passed in 2001, banning parents striking children above the shoulders (thus preventing neck, head, brain and facial injuries), and requiring that any physical force applied leave only trivial and short-lived signs such as redness (that is, no bruising, swelling, welts, cuts, grazes, internal injuries, emotional trauma, etc.).
[citation needed] On 10 October 2023, Yu was one of 25 Australians of the Year who signed an open letter supporting the Yes vote in the Indigenous Voice referendum, initiated by psychiatrist Patrick McGorry.