Tim Mander

Timothy Leonard Mander (born 9 August 1961) is an Australian politician and a former leading Australian rugby league referee. He is a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. Mander was the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Liberal National Party of Queensland.

Before politics A Christian and bible college graduate, Mander was the CEO of Scripture Union Queensland.

Mander controlled the National Rugby League (NRL) grand final in 2004 and 2005. He refereed a total of 291 first grade games between 1992 and 2005. He was also an NRL video referee.

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 for Everton, having been elected at the 2012 Queensland state election by defeating Labor's Murray Watt (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.

Following poor opinion polling for LNP leader Lawrence Springborg, Mander initiated a leadership challenge against him, and former Treasurer Tim Nicholls 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.

Extramarital affair with Amanda Camm On 1 May 2026, The Australian newspaper revealed that Queensland Premier David Crisafulli had been warned by a family relation of Mander's wife Gayle in June 2025, that the 64-year-old Tim Mander and 47-year-old fellow minister Amanda Camm had participated in a two-year-long extramarital affair, before Mander left Gayle. The secret relationship was only made public in July 2025, following the warning sent to Crisafulli. Political reporters raised questions regarding the integrity of decisions made involving Camm's electorate, which included a decision to change the location of the 2032 Summer Olympics sailing event to a location in Camm's electorate. Journalists also posed questions to Crisafulli regarding the affair but Crisafulli refused to answer, and had not held a press conference in Brisbane for several weeks after the warning was made public, but eventually relented to state that he was only made aware when the pair declared their relationship to cabinet in July 2025. Journalists reported that a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland had also warned the future Premier about the affair in a phone call in December 2023 and that it had been an open secret in the Party as early as February 2022. After receiving the family member's warning, Richard Ferrett, Crisafulli's Chief of Staff wrote back to the family member suggesting that the alleged breaches of the Ministerial Code of Conduct were not "clear enough" to proceed with an investigation.

Deputy Opposition Leader Cameron Dick amplified calls for an investigation to take place, "Given the seriousness of these matters and the allegations in the media today, then the ministers should release those declarations and disclosures. I think Queenslanders would be deeply concerned that the ministerial code of conduct has not been complied with". Queensland’s ministerial code of conduct states personal interests such as relationships and the interests of a minister’s spouse or partner must be declared by a minister to the Premier within one month of taking office.

Referral to Australian Federal Police and cabinet resignation The aftermath of the affair saw Mander referred to the Australian Electoral Commissioner. The request to the Commissioner was to investigate potential breaches of the Electoral Act and Criminal Code for giving false and misleading documents or information, in regard to his electoral enrolment address. On 19 May 2026 the Australian Electoral Commissioner referred Mander to the Australian Federal Police because he had enrolled to vote at the address of a staff member but had not provided the AEC with evidence that he had resided there. Deputy Opposition leader Cameron Dick demanded that Mander be stood down by Premier Crisafulli. Crisafulli made no statement on the referral until 21 May 2026, when Mander voluntarily stood down from Cabinet. Tourism Minister Andrew Powell took on Mander's ministerial duties for the Sport and Olympics portfolios.