Douglas Nixon Everingham (25 June 1923 – 24 August 2017) was an Australian politician who served as

Minister for Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

in the

Whitlam government The Whitlam government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party. The government commenced when Labor defeated the McMahon government at the 1972 Australian federal elect ...

from 1972 to 1975. He represented the Labor Party in the

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

from 1967 to 1975 and 1977 to 1984. He is remembered for his pivotal role in the formation of the

's Medicare program.

Early life

Born in

Wauchope, New South Wales Wauchope ( ) is a town in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is within the boundaries of the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council area. Wauchope is inland on the Hastings River and the Oxley Highway west of Port Mac ...

, Everingham was educated at

Fort Street High School Fort Street High School (FSHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, New South Wales government run, Mixed-sex school, co-educational, Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective, secondary school, secondary day school, ...

and graduated with a

Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradi ...

from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

in 1946 and worked in public and private hospitals and as a family doctor. He spent time working in New South Wales psychiatric hospitals before relocating back to

Rockhampton, Queensland Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

where he had done his internship.Whitlam health minister Everingham dies
AAP, published on 9news.com.au 29 August 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017.

Politics

Everingham's first attempt at entering politics came in 1963 when he unsuccessfully ran as the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

candidate in the seat of Dawson but was defeated by the Country Party's George Shaw. Following the death of Member for Capricornia George Gray, Everingham nominated for pre-selection for the resulting 1967 by-election. Everingham won pre-selection, beating out local Rockhampton Labor identity Evan Schwarten (father of Robert Schwarten) at a time when Labor leader

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being ...

was seeking more tertiary-educated Labor MPs amongst the party's traditional working class members.'Father of Medicare': Tributes for respected CQ politician
''

The Morning Bulletin ''The Morning Bulletin'' is an online newspaper servicing the city of Rockhampton and the surrounding areas of Central Queensland, Australia. From 1861 to 2020, ''The Morning Bulletin'' was published as a print edition, before then becoming a ...

'', 31 August 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017. Everingham went on to win the 1967 by-election beating his nearest rival, the Liberal candidate Frank Rudd, and was subsequently elected as Member for Capricornia serving on the opposition. After Labor was returned to power at the 1972 federal election,

appointed Everingham as

. Everingham was known for his fierce campaigning against cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and the sport of

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

. Local Rockhampton Labor identity, Barry Large (former Member for Capricornia Kirsten Livermore's long-serving political advisor), recalled that Everingham placed anti-smoking stickers on cigarette vending machines throughout

Parliament House Parliament House may refer to: Meeting places of parliament Australia * Parliament House, Canberra, Parliament of Australia * Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament of South Australia * Parliament House, Brisbane, Parliament of Queensland * P ...

in Canberra due to his anti-tobacco stance. Everingham was a proponent of the proposed SR1 set of spelling reforms, which resulted in him referring to his department the "Department of Helth" and dubbed himself as "Minister for Helth". This prompted Prime Minister Whitlam to send correspondence to Everingham beginning with "Dear Dug" and signed "Yurs Gof".'Dug' decides to give it away...
''

The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...

'', 25 August 1984. Retrieved from National Library of Australia 1 September 2017. Everingham was one of many Queensland Labor MPs to lose their seats at the 1975 election held after the dismissal of the Whitlam government, defeated by the National Country Party's Colin Carige. However, Everingham was re-elected when he was victorious against Carige at the 1977 federal election. He remained the Member for Capricornia until his retirement at the 1984 election.

Later life

Everingham was the coordinator of the World Election Commission in the

World Government of World Citizens The World Service Authority (WSA), founded in 1953 by Garry Davis, is a non-profit organization that claims to educate about and promote "world citizenship", "world law", and world government. It is best known for selling unofficial fantasy do ...

. He was appointed by the World Coordinator

Garry Davis Sol Gareth "Garry" Davis (27 July 1921 – 24 July 2013) was an international peace activist best known for Relinquishment of United States nationality, renouncing his American citizenship and interrupting the United Nations in 1948 to advocat ...

. At the time of his death in late August 2017, Everingham was one of four remaining original

ministers. His death prompted a number of tributes including from long-serving state Labor MP Robert Schwarten who described Everingham as the "father of Medicare" due to his campaign for Australia to have a universal health care system. Schwarten described Everingham as being "instrumental" in establishing Medicare which was originally known as Medibank.

Personal life

Everingham was married twice, his two wives having pre-deceased him. Everingham had two daughters, Jo-Anne and Sue; and two sons, Stephen and Rick. Everingham's son Stephen was killed at the age of 22 in a car accident in June 1973. Stephen's 19-year-old passenger was also killed in the accident. The car collided head-on with a truck on the

Warrego Highway The Warrego Highway is located in southern Queensland, Australia. It connects coastal centres to the south western areas of the state, and is approximately 715 km in length. It takes its name from the Warrego River, which is the endpoint ...

near Laidley west of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, while Stephen and his passenger were returning to the Queensland Agricultural College at Lawes where they were both students.Minister's son killed in collision
''

'', 25 June 1973. Retrieved from National Library of Australia 1 September 2017. At the time of his death, Doug Everingham had seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild, two step-grandchildren, and three step-grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Everingham, Douglas Nixon 1923 births 2017 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia 1975 Australian constitutional crisis Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Capricornia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Cabinet of Australia Direct democracy activists Ministers for health of Australia People educated at Fort Street High School Australian MPs 1966–1969 Australian MPs 1969–1972 Australian MPs 1972–1974 Australian MPs 1974–1975 Australian MPs 1977–1980 Australian MPs 1980–1983 Australian MPs 1983–1984