Nguyen was born in the Vietnamese town of
Long Xuyên. He later went on to serve as the city's mayor for a year in August 1991, the first Vietnamese mayor in Australia, and continued to serve as a councillor until 1994. During this period, he also became involved with the
trade union movement, serving as a Migrant Liaison Officer for the
National Union of Workers from 1989 to 1993. and Nguyen was elected. As a member of parliament, he served on the Family and Community Development Committee from 1996–99, the Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee from 1999–2006, and the House Committee from 2003–06. In 2008 he considered running to be Labor's candidate in the
Kororoit by-election. == References==