Neil O'Sullivan

Sir Michael Neil O'Sullivan KBE (2 August 1900 – 4 July 1968) was an Australian politician and lawyer. He served as a Senator for Queensland from 1947 to 1962, representing the Liberal Party. He held senior ministerial positions in the post-war Menzies Government, serving as Minister for Trade and Customs (1949–56), Minister for the Navy, and Attorney-General (1956–58).

Early life O'Sullivan was born on 2 August 1900 in Toowong, Queensland. He was the fifth child born to Patrick Alban O'Sullivan and his wife Mary Bridget (née Macgroarty), both of Irish Catholic descent. His uncles Thomas O'Sullivan and Neil MacGroarty served in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, as did his paternal grandfather Patrick O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan attended the state school in Taringa before completing his education at St. Joseph's Nudgee College. He followed his father into the legal profession, serving articles of clerkship with firms in Brisbane and Warwick. He did not attend law school but was admitted as a solicitor in December 1922 by examination. He subsequently took over his father's practice in Brisbane, later forming a partnership with John Joseph Rowell. He was commissioned as a flying officer and met future prime minister John Gorton while stationed at Milne Bay.

Views In his maiden speech to parliament, O'Sullivan spoke of his belief in the doctrine of natural rights deriving from God. He was a social conservative, supporting heavy censorship as a safeguard against "indecency, blasphemy and sedition". Although he voted for the Matrimonial Causes Act 1959, which established uniform national divorce laws, he believed that divorce violated the divine law and stated that "a valid consummated Christian marriage is indissoluble". He was an anti-communist and cited the papal encyclical Quadragesimo anno in a 1947 speech against the Chifley government's bank nationalisation bill.

Personal life O'Sullivan married Jessie McEncroe on 3 April 1929, with whom he had two sons. He was a devout Catholic and was a close connection of Archbishop James Duhig, with his biographer Duncan Waterson stating that "on matters of faith, morals, censorship and conservative Catholic social thought the two were as one". O'Sullivan was made Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1959.

O'Sullivan died unexpectedly of a coronary occlusion while visiting Sydney in 1968. He was survived by his wife and two sons. He was accorded a state funeral and was buried in Nudgee Cemetery.