LANDA, ABRAM

LANDA, ABRAM (1902–1989), Australian lawyer and politician. Landa, who was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, immigrated to Australia as a boy. He received a law degree from the University of Sydney and in 1927 was admitted to practice as a solicitor. Landa was elected and sat as Labor member for Bondi in the New South Wales Parliament from 1930 to 1932 and from 1941 to 1963. He served in the New South Wales government as minister for labor and industry (1953–56), minister for housing (1956–59), and minister for housing and cooperative societies (1959–65). Landa was also active in Jewish affairs in New South Wales. In 1965 he was appointed agent general for New South Wales in London. In the late 1940s, Landa was instrumental in persuading H.V. Evatt, Australia's foreign minister, to support the creation of the State of Israel at the United Nations, a sequence of events in which Australia's support was extremely important. His nephew PAUL LANDA (1941–1984) served in the New South Wales Parliament as the state's attorney-general and in a variety of other ministerial posts. He died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of only 43. It is widely believed that he   would eventually have become premier of New South Wales and even Australia's prime minister. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: W.D. Rubinstein, Australia II, 307–8. (Isidor Solomon / William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)