Kenneth Desmond O'Dowd (born 30 June 1950) is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 2010 to 2022, representing the

Division of Flynn The Division of Flynn is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The current MP is Colin Boyce, a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland. He was first elected in 2022. Geography Federal electoral division boundaries in A ...

for the National Party.

Background

O'Dowd was born in

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

, Queensland. He grew up on his parents' farm in Bracewell, Mount Larcom. O'Dowd was educated at Bracewell State School, Mount Larcom High School and

Rockhampton Grammar School , motto_translation=Grow in character and scholarship , established = 1881 , type = Independent, day & boarding , gender = Co-educational , head = Dr Phillip Moulds , city = Rockhampton , state = Queensland , c ...

. While still at school O'Dowd worked on his parents' farm, neighbours' farms, as a contract milker, on the railways as a fettler, on flying gangs, and on the construction of railway lines. O'Dowd has two children and four grandchildren. As of 23 October 2021, O’Dowd holds shares in Woodside Petroleum and has interests in BHP, Rio Tinto and Caltex.

Career

O'Dowd became a payroll clerk at Queensland Aluminium Limited (QAL) Gladstone. From 1970 to 1978 he worked on the construction of the

Bougainville Copper Mine The Panguna mine is a large copper mine located in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, in the east of Papua New Guinea. Panguna represents one of the largest copper reserves in Papua New Guinea and in the world, having an estimated reserve of ...

in New Guinea. In 1978 he worked at the Gladstone seaport terminal within the fuel industry, until establishing his own Mobil fuel distributorship in Emerald in 1981, which he sold in 1988. He became partner of a Shell distributorship in 1988, which was sold ten years later. In 1998 O'Dowd bought and renovated a Rockhampton pub, renaming it O'Dowd's Irish Pub, which he sold in 2004. From 1998 onwards he operated Busteed Building Supplies.

Political career

O'Dowd contested the Division of Flynn for the Liberal National Party at the 2010 Federal election and won the seat from Labor's one term incumbent

Chris Trevor Chris Allan Trevor (born 23 June 1961) is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Flynn from 2007 to 2010. He had previously narrowly lost a conte ...

. He continued to hold the seat in the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

federal elections. O'Dowd supports building HELE coal fired power stations, inland rail (such as the controversial

Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport is an airport in Wellcamp, west from the CBD of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. It was known as Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport until November 2017. The airport and an associated aviation and business park is the ...

to Gladstone link), and opening up more agricultural land. In November 2020, O'Dowd announced he would not contest the next election. O'Dowd is a member of Parliamentary Friends of Palestine. He has stated on several occasions that Israel is perpetrating a form of apartheid upon Palestinians. O'Dowd has disputed the scientific consensus on climate change, denying that

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

is caused by humanity.

External links

Ken O'Dowd official website

APH profile
* Search or browse

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fo
Ken O'Dowd
at OpenAustralia.org

References

1950 births Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Flynn Members of the Australian House of Representatives Liberal National Party of Queensland members of the Parliament of Australia 21st-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Liberal-politician-stub