Gordon Scholes

Gordon Glen Denton Scholes AO (7 June 1931 – 9 December 2018) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served in the House of Representatives from 1967 to 1993, representing the Division of Corio. He served terms as Speaker of the House of Representatives (1975–1976), Minister for Defence (1983–1984), and Minister for Territories (1984–1987).

Early life Scholes was born on 7 June 1931 in West Melbourne, Victoria. He was the only child of Mary Louisa (née O'Brien) and Thomas Glen Denton Scholes; his father was a railway worker and his mother was a psychiatric nurse.

Scholes had a turbulent childhood. He spent two long periods in hospital, once at the age of three following a car accident and again at the age of fourteen following a bout of rheumatic fever. His father enlisted in the military in 1941 and was injured while fighting in New Guinea, subsequently becoming a long-term patient at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital. Scholes stayed with relatives in various locations around Victoria while his mother worked at a munitions factory, attending twelve different schools. He eventually settled in Daylesford where his mother's aunt lived, attending Daylesford Technical High School to the age of fifteen. By the time the Governor-General agreed to see Scholes, Kerr had already dissolved the Parliament on Fraser's advice, which was something Fraser had undertaken to do once he had secured passage of the Supply bills through the Senate. Scholes later accused Kerr of bad faith for making an appointment to receive the Speaker shortly after 3pm, and then not waiting to hear from him before dissolving Parliament more than an hour later, with the appointed Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser still as Prime Minister, without the confidence of the House of Representatives.

Government minister Scholes was Minister for Defence in the first Hawke Ministry from March 1983 to December 1984 and then Minister for Territories until July 1987. He retired before the 1993 election.

Personal life and death He was an honorary member of the Geelong Philatelic Society .

Gordon Scholes died on 9 December 2018, aged 87. A State Funeral was held on 18 December.