Dean MacMillan Wells (born 13 January 1949) is an Australian politician. He was a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member of the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembl ...

from 1986 to 2012 and was a

member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

from 1983 to 1984. Born of Australian parents in

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, he was educated at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

before becoming a lawyer. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1972 before completing his Master of Arts in 1976. Finally in 1980, he obtained his Bachelor of Laws. Later, he was a lecturer in philosophy at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

and an author and political commentator. In the autumn of 1981, he lectured at Saint David's University College, Lampeter in Wales. In 1983, he was elected to the

as the

member for

Petrie Petrie is a surname of Scottish origin which may refer to: People * Alexander Petrie (died 1662), Scottish minister * Alistair Petrie (born 1970), English actor * Andrew Petrie (1798–1872), Scottish-born builder, architect and first free settle ...

, defeating sitting

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

member

John Hodges John Robart Hodges (11 August 1855 – 17 January 1933) was an Australian cricketer who played in the first two Test matches in 1877. Cricket career Hodges was born in Knightsbridge, London, on 11 August 1855 and is believed to have died on ...

. Hodges defeated Wells in 1984. In 1986, Wells was elected to the

as the member for Murrumba, and in 1989 was appointed

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

, a position he held until 1995. He was appointed Minister for Justice and served this position between 1992 and 1995, while he also served as Minister for Arts. In 1998, he was appointed Minister for Education; in 2001 he was shifted to become Minister for the Environment, a position he held until 2004. He was defeated in the 2012 election by the Liberal National Party's

Reg Gulley Reg Gulley (born 23 April 1969) is an Australian Liberal National politician who was the member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for Murrumba from 2012 to 2015, having defeated Dean Wells at the 2012 state election. He studied Comm ...

. He was called to the Queensland Bar in 2009, and now practises as a barrister specialising in Criminal Law, Public/Administrative Law and Human Rights /Discrimination/Equal Opportunity Law. Since 2013, he has also been is part of the teaching staff part time at the

Queensland University of Technology Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area viz. Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The univ ...

References

Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Attorneys-General of Queensland Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Petrie Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly 1949 births Living people Monash Law School alumni Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland 21st-century Australian politicians 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub