Phuong Ngo's Three-Decade Fight for Freedom Amidst Political Assassination Conviction
For almost thirty years, Phuong Ngo has remained incarcerated, facing the stark reality of likely dying in prison. Despite this, he continues to assert his innocence regarding the crime that led to his conviction: masterminding Australia's most high-profile political assassination. A dedicated team of loyal supporters persists in advocating for Ngo's release from Goulburn Supermax Correctional Centre, where he is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. This renewed effort coincides with the publication of a new book that revisits critical questions surrounding his conviction.
Supporters argue that Ngo has already served more time behind bars than some individuals convicted of directly carrying out murders. The 1994 murder of NSW Labor MP John Newman sent shockwaves throughout the nation. Newman, a long-serving Fairfield councillor who had been elected to state parliament eight years earlier, was shot dead in the front yard of his suburban home in southwest Sydney.
The Political Rivalry and Controversial Conviction
Phuong Ngo, also a Fairfield councillor who had challenged and lost to Newman at the 1991 state election, became a suspect and was eventually convicted of orchestrating the killing. However, the men accused of being the gunman and getaway driver were acquitted, and to this day, no one has been convicted of actually pulling the trigger. This discrepancy lies at the heart of the ongoing controversy.
Carlotta McIntosh, a local journalist who covered the murder investigation and subsequent trials, became convinced that an injustice was occurring. She has recently published, with crowd-funding support, what she describes as her controversial book, A Marked Man: The Questionable Conviction Of Phuong Ngo. McIntosh and other supporters are simultaneously pushing a petition that calls on the NSW Government to review mandatory sentencing laws and Ngo's specific sentence.
Protesting Innocence from Behind Bars
Ngo has consistently maintained that he did not order Newman's murder. The now 67-year-old reiterated this claim in a statement read aloud at the December launch of A Marked Man in Cabramatta. From his cell in Goulburn Supermax, one of Australia's highest-security prisons, Ngo wrote, "I've been incarcerated for 27 years, five months and 18 days for a crime I did not commit. The Vietnam War did not last this long." He poignantly added that lifers in prison do not live; they merely exist, noting he has lost his mother, brother, and father while behind bars.
John Paul Newman was 47 when he was shot twice by a hooded gunman outside his Cabramatta home on September 5, 1994, in front of his fiancee, Lucy Wang. Newman had served on Fairfield City Council for a decade before being elected to the NSW Parliament in 1986. Phuong Canh Ngo arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1982 at age 24, born into an educated, well-off family in South Vietnam. Driven by a desire to help others, he became the first Vietnamese-Australian elected to local government in 1987 and was elected deputy mayor of Fairfield in 1990.
Trials, Sentencing, and Renewed Calls for Review
Ngo's political aspirations were noted in court after his arrest in March 1998. The case underwent three trials between 1999 and 2001, resulting in his conviction while the other two men were acquitted. In 2001, Ngo was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole under NSW laws introduced in 1999, which mandate such sentences for crimes with extreme culpability.
Some supporters are now calling for a review of Ngo's sentence, citing the words of the sentencing judge, Supreme Court Justice John Dunford, who stated, "If I had the power to do so, I would fix a non-parole period," though he added it would be a very long one. Under current law, offenders sentenced to life without parole have no pathway to reconsideration based on rehabilitation or time served.
In her book, McIntosh writes that if Ngo lives to age 90, he will have served the equivalent of two life sentences. She questions, "What if he has been jailed for a crime he did not commit?" McIntosh, who covered Cabramatta throughout the 1990s and attended all of Ngo's trials, became convinced of an injustice. She argues the jury was wrong because the evidence was skewed against him.
Inconsistencies and Enduring Support
McIntosh raises several inconsistencies in the case, including testimony about Ngo's political motives. She points to evidence from then ALP general secretary John Della Bosca, who testified that Ngo declined to run for election in place of Newman on the day of the murder, instead intending to run for the upper house. Former Fairfield mayor Nick Lalich and other Labor figures also gave evidence that Ngo's ambitions were focused on the upper house.
Additional inconsistencies highlighted include witnesses changing their stories about locations and a witness who allegedly changed his evidence due to fears about his wife's immigration status. McIntosh also questions details about the alleged murder weapon and suggests others may have had motives to see Newman killed, given numerous death threats he received.
Ngo retains a loyal group of supporters who have launched the website freephuongngo, featuring documents, analysis, and podcasts questioning his conviction. Retired surgeon Mac Halliday, the site's creator, believes the investigation was deeply flawed. Former Fairfield mayor Nick Lalich firmly believed in Ngo's innocence, visiting him routinely in jail until his death in March 2025.
Despite Ngo's conviction being upheld through an appeal and a judicial inquiry, supporters continue to fight for his release. Others who regularly visit Ngo include the foster mother of Tony Tuan Pham, who remembers Ngo as a "really decent man." A petition calling for a review of mandatory sentencing laws and Ngo's sentence has attracted nearly 600 signatures, underscoring the persistent doubts surrounding this decades-old case.
