Merv Thackeray

Merv Thackeray
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Keppel
In office
3 August 1957 – 28 May 1960
Preceded byViv Cooper
Succeeded bySeat abolished
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Rockhampton North
In office
28 May 1960 – 27 May 1972
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byLes Yewdale
Personal details
Born
Mervyn Herbert Thackeray

(1925-10-20)20 October 1925
Mackay, Queensland, Australia
Died7 June 2014(2014-06-07) (aged 88)
Political partyLabor
Other political
affiliations		Independent
SpouseDorothy Scholes
OccupationEngine driver, Fireman, Grazier

Mervyn Herbert (Merv) Thackeray (20 October 1925 – 7 June 2014)[1] was an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1957 until 1972, representing Keppel (1957–1960) and Rockhampton North (1960–1972). He was disendorsed in January 1972 and ran unsuccessfully as an independent at the 1972 state election.

Thackeray was born in Mackay and educated at Mackay Primary School. He had a career as a grazier and on the railways before entering politics, working variously as engine driver, fireman, engine cleaner and union delegate. He entered politics at the 1957 election immediately following the Labor split of that year, defeating Labor defector and Queensland Labor Party candidate Viv Cooper on behalf of official Labor in the seat of Keppel.[2] His seat of Keppel was abolished in 1960, and he successfully switched to its successor seat of Rockhampton North. He was subsequently re-elected in Rockhampton North a further three times.[1]

Thackeray had a poor relationship with the party administration throughout the later part of his career. Mike Ahern claimed Thackeray had been "on the outer with the ALP, partly because he was a left-wing meat worker and partly because he was useless." Ahern further claimed that Thackeray had been leaking Labor tactics to Government Whip Vince Jones.[3] In January 1972, Thackeray, along with two other dissident MLAs, Col Bennett and Ed Casey, were disendorsed after repeated clashes with the state secretary and state executive. The three MLAs ran for re-election as independents under the banner of the "True Labor Party", but Thackeray and Bennett were both soundly defeated.[4][5]

  1. ^ a b "Former Members". Parliament of Queensland. 2015. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  2. ^ Wanna, John; Arklay, Tracey, The Ayes Have It: A History of the Queensland Parliament, 1957-1989, Chapter 16, retrieved 12 June 2012
  3. ^ Reynolds, Paul L. (2002), Lock, Stock & Barrel: A Political Biography of Mike Ahern, University of Queensland Press, p. 23
  4. ^ Wanna, John; Arklay, Tracey, The Ayes Have It: A History of the Queensland Parliament, 1957-1989, Chapter 9, retrieved 12 June 2012
  5. ^ "Re-Member: Thackeray, Mervyn". Parliament of Queensland. Retrieved 12 June 2012.