Timothy Sean Mulherin (24 August 1957 – 7 September 2020) was an Australian politician who was the MP for

Mackay Mackay may refer to: *Clan Mackay, the Scottish clan from which the surname "MacKay" derives Mackay may also refer to: Places Australia * Mackay Region, a local government area ** Mackay, Queensland, a city in the above region *** Mackay Airport ...

in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1995 to 2015, serving as Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2012 to 2015.

Early life and career

Born in

, he was a clerk on the Mackay Electricity Board before becoming involved in politics.

Political career

From 1994 to 1995 he was a state organiser of the Labor Party. In 1995, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland as the Labor member for

, replacing

Ed Casey Edmund Denis Casey (2 January 1933 – 1 May 2006), known as Ed, was best known as the leader of the Australian Labor Party in Queensland between 1978 and 1982. He also served as Primary Industries Minister in the government of Wayne Goss betwe ...

, a former ALP leader. He served as a backbencher until he was named to the

Beattie Ministry The Beattie Ministry was a Ministry of the Government of Queensland, led by Labor Premier Peter Beattie. It commenced on 26 June 1998, thirteen days after the Borbidge Ministry, led by Premier Rob Borbidge of the National Party, was defeated at ...

to replace the disgraced

Gordon Nuttall Gordon Richard Nuttall (born 13 June 1953) is a former Australian politician who represented Sandgate in the Queensland Parliament from 1992 to 2006. He was a member of the Labor Party and served as a minister in the Beattie Ministry from ...

as Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries in December 2005. He was given additional responsibility for Regional Development in 2009, and his title was recast as Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries and Rural and Regional Queensland. In February 2011, his title was again changed, this time to Minister for Agriculture, Food and Regional Economies At the advent of the ALP's heavy defeat at the 2012 election, Mulherin barely held on to his seat of Mackay, a Labor stronghold for the better part of a century. He suffered a 16-point swing, reducing his majority from a comfortably safe 16 per cent to an extremely marginal 0.5 per cent, making it the most marginal Labor seat in the Assembly. He was one of only three Labor members elected from outside South East Queensland. Following the election, he was elected unopposed as deputy leader of what remained of Labor, and hence Deputy Opposition Leader. During the 2015 election campaign, Mulherin announced his retirement citing family and health reasons but remained as Deputy Opposition Leader until polling day. At the time of his retirement, he was the longest-serving Labor member of the Legislative Assembly, and the only one to have previously served in Opposition prior to 2012, having been in Parliament during the 1996–98

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

ministry of Rob Borbidge.

Personal life

Tim Mulherin was married to Erin and had three children, Declan, Liam and Rory. He died of cancer on 7 September 2020 at the age of 63. After his death, in June 2022 Mulherin was posthumously appointed Member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours for "significant service to the people and Parliament of Queensland".

References

1957 births 2020 deaths Members of the Order of Australia Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly People from Mackay, Queensland Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland 21st-century Australian politicians Deputy opposition leaders {{Australia-Labor-Queensland-MP-stub