In 1961, Cross was elected to the
Australian House of Representatives as the
Labor member for the federal parliamentary seat of
Brisbane. There was a strong nation-wide swing towards Labor in the
1961 federal election and Cross was elected with a comfortable majority in Brisbane of over 57% of the
two-party preferred vote. In the same election, his colleague
Bill Hayden, later
Leader of the Federal Labor Party and
Governor-General, unexpectedly won the nearby seat of
Oxley in
Ipswich. Cross and Hayden, both Labor Party
backbenchers in the Federal parliament throughout most of the 1960s, shared a small room in Parliament House in Canberra (now known as "
Old Parliament House") and were well-known members from Queensland in the parliament. Cross held the seat of Brisbane in the
1963,
1966, and
1969 elections when Labor failed to win government. In
1972, Labor leader
Gough Whitlam won the election and the formed the first Labor Government in Australia for 23 years. As a backbencher, Cross had taken a close interest in
Aboriginal affairs and had hoped to become Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the
Whitlam Government. However, he narrowly failed to win election to the Ministry and his colleague from Victoria,
Gordon Bryant, became Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the government.
1975 election Cross held the seat of Brisbane until 1975. In the
federal election that year he was defeated by
Liberal challenger
Peter Johnson amid Labor's meltdown in
Queensland in the election; Labor was cut down to only one seat in Queensland with Hayden holding on narrowly for Labor in Oxley. Although Cross led Johnson in early voting, he did not win a clear majority on the first count. The seat was decided after the allocation of
preferences. In the third round of preferential counting, a
National Country candidate's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Johnson. The National Country Party had begun contesting seats in the Brisbane area in order to broaden its base.
Later elections and political life During the 1970s and later, Cross was active in efforts to reform the Labor Party in Queensland. Following a severe loss that the Labor Party suffered in the state
election in Queensland in 1974, there was growing support for reform of the organisation of the party. Cross, along with colleagues such as
Peter Beattie,
Di Fingleton,
Kev Hooper and
Denis Murphy, was one of the activists who supported moves for change. In March 1980 the National Executive of the Labor Party intervened in the management of the party at the state level and appointed Manfred Cross as an interim Queensland Branch Secretary to help guide the reform process. During this period, Cross continued to work for re-election to the national parliament as the member for Brisbane. He narrowly lost to Peter Johnson in a
1977 rematch but succeeded in regaining the seat in
1980 when there was a nation-wide swing towards Labor with Hayden as leader. Cross remained in the parliament as a member of the House of Representatives until his retirement in 1990. == Later life ==