Background
Cadman was born in Sydney and was educated at the University of New South Wales.
Cadman was born in Sydney and was educated at the University of New South Wales.
University of New South Wales.
Despite his long tenure, Cadman was only considered for ministerial preferment twice. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister (Malcolm Fraser) 1981-1983 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business 1997-1998. In 2003, Cadman was the unsuspecting target of a prank by comedy show CNNNN in which "rumours" were spread about his intentions to run against John Howard for the Prime Ministership.
On 16 June 2007, Cadman withdrew from the preselection contest, and later announced his current term would be his last.
He was to later condemn the circumstances under which he lost preselection to Alex Hawke. The Australian newspaper wrote "One of parliament"s longest-serving MPs has lashed out at the "extreme" right wing of the Liberal Party, saying it is no longer concerned with values or policies and has become obsessed with power for its own sake.
Mr Cadman said his loss to Mr Hawke.. was the result of relentless branch-stacking within the electorate."
Prime Minister John Howard was elected on the same day as Cadman, but took the swearing-in oath later.
He was an orchardist and company director before entering politics. Mitchell Member of Parliament Alan Cadman has broken his silence on the preselection battle in which he lost the party"s endorsement for his safe northern Sydney seat, which he won from Labor in 1974, to the right wing"s Alex Hawke, 29.
In 1992 he was one of a group of Coalition members of parliament who founded the Lyons Forum, a conservative ginger group. At the time of his retirement Cadman was, by a matter of a few minutes, the second longest-serving member of the House of Representatives. Philip Ruddock was the only serving member of the House who had served for a longer period of time.