Timothy Leonard Mander (born 9 August 1961) is an Australian politician and a former leading Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

. He is a

Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly This is a list of members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, the state parliament of Queensland, sorted by parliament. See also * Queensland Legislative Assembly electoral districts This is a list of current and former Electoral dis ...

. Mander was the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the

Liberal National Party of Queensland The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a major conservative political party in Queensland, Australia. It was formed in 2008 by a merger of the Queensland divisions of the Liberal Party and the National Party. In most other states ...

Before politics

A Christian and

bible college A Bible college, sometimes referred to as a Bible institute or theological institute or theological seminary, is an evangelical Christian or Restoration Movement Christianity, Christian institution of higher education which prepares students for C ...

graduate, Mander was the CEO of

Scripture Union Scripture Union (SU) is an international, interdenominational, evangelical Christian organisation. It was founded in 1867, and works in partnership with individuals and churches across the world. The organisation's stated aim is to use the Bibl ...

Queensland. Mander controlled the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

(NRL)

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. He refereed a total of 291 first grade games between 1992 and 2005. He was also an NRL

video referee Instant replay or action replay is a video reproduction of something that recently occurred, both shot and broadcast live. After being shown live, the video is replayed so viewers can see it again and analyze what just happened. Sports—suc ...

. Honours awarded to Mander include 2005 International Referee of the Year and 2005 Queensland Father of the Year.

Politics

Mander is the 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 Assembly ...

for Everton, having been elected at the

2012 Queensland state election The 2012 Queensland state election was held on 24 March 2012 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament. The Labor Party (ALP), led by Premier Anna Bligh, was defeated by the opposition Liberal National P ...

by defeating

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 ...

Murray Watt Murray Patrick Watt (born 20 January 1973) is an Australian politician who has served as Minister for the Environment and Water in the Albanese government since May 2025. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has been a Senat ...

(the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer). Mander was appointed Assistant Minister for Sport and Racing on 3 April 2012. He was promoted to Minister of Housing and Public Works on 19 November 2012, following the resignation of

Bruce Flegg Bruce Stephen Flegg (born 10 March 1954, Sydney) is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 2004 to 2015, representing the electorate of electoral district of Moggill, Moggill in south-western ...

. Following poor opinion polling for LNP leader

Lawrence Springborg Lawrence James Springborg (born 17 February 1968) is an Australian politician. He led the National Party in the Queensland Parliament from 2003 to 2006 and again in 2008, before becoming the first leader of the merged Liberal National Party ...

, Mander initiated a leadership challenge against him, and former Treasurer

Tim Nicholls Timothy James Nicholls (born 6 April 1965) is an Australian politician and a former leader of the Liberal National Party of Queensland. He served as the Treasurer of Queensland and the Minister for Trade of that state between March/April 2012 ...

also nominated for the position. In the first round, Mander received only 10 votes, against Nicholls' 14 and Springborg's 17, and was therefore eliminated. Nicholls eventually prevailed with 22 votes to Springborg's 19 and was sworn in as Opposition Leader on 6 May 2016. After the LNP lost the 2017 state election, Mander was elected deputy LNP leader, under leader

Deb Frecklington Deborah Kay Frecklington (born 3 September 1971) is an Australian politician who serves as the member for Nanango in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, having won the seat at the 2012 state election. She was the Leader of the Queensland ...

References

External links

Mander to referee 2005 NRL grand finalMander retires as NRL reveals new deal for refsTim Mander – profile
1961 births Living people Liberal National Party of Queensland politicians Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Australian rugby league referees National Rugby League referees Rugby League World Cup referees Australian sportsperson-politicians Politicians from Brisbane 21st-century Australian politicians Deputy opposition leaders 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-LiberalNational-politician-stub