Philip Roy Gray (20 April 1947 – 19 April 2017) was 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 2006 to 2009.

Early life

Born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Gray attended state schools before becoming a teacher, studying 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 the University of New England

Politics

A member of the Australian Labor Party, he was elected as the member for Gaven in the 2006 state election, defeating National Party member Alex Douglas, who had won the seat against Gray in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

earlier that year. In late 2008, Gray earned himself some bad publicity when he was accused of two instances of "bullying", both of them against elderly women. In the first instance he threatened to sue an outspoken constituent who, at a public meeting in November 2008, said she would not be voting for Gray. This was followed in December by a legal threat against a Labor member, from whom he demanded $10,000 and an apology, for criticising him in an internal party report. His behaviour was denounced by Premier

Anna Bligh Anna Maria Bligh (born 14 July 1960) is a lobbyist and former Australian politician who served as the 37th Premier of Queensland, in office from 2007 to 2012 as leader of the Labor Party. She was the first woman to hold either position. In 2 ...

and Gray publicly apologised for his actions. The 2009 state election pitted Gray against Alex Douglas for the third consecutive time. On this occasion, Douglas, running under the banner of the newly formed Liberal National Party, narrowly emerged as the victor. Following his defeat, Gray angrily slammed what he perceived as negative and "biased" coverage of him by the ''

Gold Coast Bulletin The ''Gold Coast Bulletin'' is a daily newspaper serving Australia's Gold Coast region. It is published as ''The Gold Coast Bulletin'' on weekdays and the ''Weekend Bulletin'' at weekends. It is owned by News Corp Australia. History The n ...

''.

Later life

Gray died on 19 April 2017 in

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

following a long illness.

References

1947 births 2017 deaths Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland 21st-century Australian politicians Politicians from Brisbane {{Australia-Labor-Queensland-MP-stub