Gordon Bennett (union organiser)

{{Short description|English-born labor advocate on Christmas Island}}

Gordon Bennett (known locally as Tai Ko Seng [Big Brother Who Delivers]) (1944–1991{{Cite web|url=http://www.westannouncements.com.au/obituaries/thewest-au/obituary-preview.aspx?n=gordon-bennett&pid=152815104&referrer=3057|title = Obituaries | the West Announcements}}) was an English-born labor advocate on Christmas Island. Bennet arrived on the island in 1979 to take a post as leader of the Union of Christmas Island Workers, where he worked for the wage and safety rights of marginalized Chinese and Malay laborers on the island.{{cite book|author=Arron Wood|title=Billabong Boy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5M_9QvfhgC&pg=PT69|year=2010|publisher=New Holland Publishers (AU)|isbn=978-1-921655-59-3|pages=69–}}

Bennet died in 1991, and was buried in the island's Chinese cemetery, where his grave became a site of reverence, with offerings of liquor and cigarettes left for him by the island's Chinese and Malay residents.{{cite book|author=Mark Dapin|title=Strange Country|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3I3Pg02N39YC&pg=PA86|date=1 November 2008|publisher=Pan Macmillan Australia|isbn=978-1-74262-368-9|pages=86–}}