William John Gordon ( – 25 November 2022) was an Australian indigenous politician. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 2015 to 2017, representing the electorate of

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

Career

Hailing from Innisfail, Queensland, Gordon first entered politics as the Labor candidate in the federal seat of Leichhardt for the 2013 election, losing to Liberal National incumbent

Warren Entsch Warren George Entsch is an Australian politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007 and since 2010, representing the Division of Leichhardt. He is a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland, and sit ...

. However, he increased his profile enough that he was able to successfully stand in the state seat of Cook, essentially the far northern portion of the federal seat. Gordon was elected as a Labor candidate at the 2015 election before becoming an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

two months later. He retired at the 2017 election. Gordon was one of the first indigenous Queensland state MPs in a generation.

Controversy

In 2015, Gordon was sacked by the Labor Party following disclosures of a criminal record dating back to 1980. In 2015, tip offs to the media led to Gordon publicly disclosing a criminal history dating back to the 1980s that he had not disclosed to his colleagues including driving offences, break and entering offences, breach of bail and probation, and an apprehended violence order taken out by his mother. Gordon's former

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

partner Partner, Partners, The Partner, or, The Partners may refer to: Books * ''The Partner'' (Grisham novel), by John Grisham, 1997 * ''The Partner'' (Jenaro Prieto novel), 1928 * ''The Partners'' (book), a 1983 book by James B. Stewart * ''Partner'' (m ...

accused him of

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

and routinely not filing

tax return A tax return is the completion of documentation that calculates an entity or individual's income earned and the amount of taxes to be paid to the government or government organizations or, potentially, back to the taxpayer. Taxation is one of ...

s to avoid

child support Child support (or child maintenance) is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child (or parent, caregiver, guardian) following the end of a marriage or other similar relationship. Child maintenance is paid d ...

payments to his five children. In response Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk expelled Gordon from the Labor caucus, and asked the state party's organisational wing to have Gordon expelled from the party altogether. Although Palaszczuk was well aware that the loss of Cook could potentially have put her premiership in jeopardy, she said that given the circumstances, she had no other choice. In September 2015, Queensland Police dropped the domestic violence charges against Gordon, citing insufficient evidence to prosecute. On the same day, police charged a woman with extortion for allegedly attempting to blackmail Gordon by claiming he had sent her an explicit image by SMS. Gordon was charged with drink driving and unlicensed driving on 1 June 2016 while pulled over at a random traffic stop on the Kennedy Highway at Kuranda, on the

Atherton Tableland The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the Barron River. It was dammed to form an irrigation reservoir named Lake Tina ...

west of Cairns. He was taken to the Kuranda police station and allegedly returned a blood-alcohol content reading of 0.094. On 1 July 2016, Gordon pleaded guilty to both charges in the Brisbane Magistrates Court. He was fined $750 and disqualified from driving for four months.

Retirement

Gordon retired from politics at the 2017 election, having confirmed that he would not recontest his seat on 31 October 2017 following the calling of the election. Gordon died on 25 November 2022, aged 49.Former State MP Billy Gordon dead
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Billy Year of birth missing 1970s births 2022 deaths Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Indigenous Australian politicians People from Innisfail, Queensland Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland Australian politicians convicted of crimes Independent members of the Parliament of Queensland 21st-century Australian politicians