Anthony John Mooney AM is a former Australian politician who served as a city councillor of the

City of Townsville The City of Townsville is a local government area (LGA) located in North Queensland, Australia. It encompasses the city of Townsville, together with the surrounding rural areas. To the south are the communities of Alligator Creek, Woodstock a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

from 1977 to 2008, and the mayor from 1989 to 2008.

Overview

Cr. Tony Mooney was first elected as mayor in 1989 when he succeeded Mike Reynolds. He achieved 80% two party preferred and 73.56% primary vote at the 2004 election. Mooney was serving his sixth successive term when he was resoundingly defeated in the 2008 election with only 35% of the vote. He and former Thuringowa mayor Les Tyrell were forced to go head to head for the top position when Townsville and Thuringowa City Councils were amalgamated by the state government. In 2008 he was appointed to the board of Ergon Energy and in 2009 to the board of Townsville Enterprise Limited. As an ALP candidate he made two attempts to win a parliamentary seat but both attempts were unsuccessful. The first was as the ALP candidate for the court ordered Queensland state Mundingburra by-election. He was endorsed as the ALP candidate in Mundingburra after the ALP Administrative Committee disendorsed the sitting member Ken Davies. Mooney was defeated in the by-election thanks in some part to Davies running as an independent. Mooney won 40.2% of the primary vote and 47.2% of the two party preferred vote while Davies won 4.1% of the primary vote but did not direct his preferences to Mooney. It has been noted that it was enough to cost Mooney victory at the by-election. Mooney's second attempt to win a parliamentary seat was in 2010 when he announced his candidacy for the Federal seat of Herbert, but he was defeated by

Ewen Jones Ewen Thomas Jones (7 March 1960 – 13 July 2023) was an Australian politician representing the division of Division of Herbert, Herbert for the Liberal National Party of Queensland, Liberal National Party from the 2010 Australian federal elect ...

at the Federal election on 21 August 2010.

Education

Mooney received a scholarship to study at

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cair ...

in 1972 and completed an honours degree in education- arts.Cooper, Linda ''The Private Life of Tony Mooney'
CityLife Magazine August 2006p. 18
He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Honours

Mooney received the

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or g ...

on 1 January 2001 for distinguished service to local government. On 26 January 2011, Mooney was appointed a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for service to local government, and to the community of Townsville through a range of tourism, business and infrastructure organisations.

References

External links

Townsville City Council Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mooney, Tony Australian Labor Party mayors Mayors of Townsville Living people James Cook University alumni Members of the Order of Australia Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Australian Institute of Company Directors