Gold Coast MP Meaghan Scanlon’s reveals her family battle and motoviations

SHE is Queensland’s youngest elected MP and is considered ‘shy and private’. Now Gold Coast Labor MP Meaghan Scanlon opens up about what motivated her to get into politics.

NEW Labor Gold Coast MP Meaghan Scanlon has used her maiden speech in State Parliament to open up about the struggle of her losing her father, and her mother’s fight to educate her intellectually disabled brother.

Queensland’s youngest elected MP, who is considered by colleagues to be shy and private, revealed the reasons for her passion to promote education and protect Queensland’s frontline service workers.

Ms Scanlon’s younger brother Callum has Down syndrome. When she was a teenager she lost her father Phil, a police officer, but until now has kept private how her family struggled during the years.

Election night and Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon with her mother Margaret Scanlon and brother Callum, 21 and her supporters. Picture Mike Batterham

A former student at Guardian Angels Primary School and Aquinas College, the young Labor lawyer talked about her personal life after thanking Year 7 teacher Mick Beard, who was sitting in the public gallery.

“However, my brother’s experience in the education system was very different to mine,” Ms Scanlon told Parliament.

“My dad battled with melanoma for many years and died when we were early in high school. That left my mum (Margaret) to juggle her workload and raise two children, one with an intellectual impairment.

“While she (mum) acknowledges that my brother will not reach the same level as his peers, he deserves the right to knowledge and to be afforded the dignity that education and work provide.

“There were many occasions where she had to fight for that right and was made to feel as though she was a burden for simply asking for her child to be provided with the foundations to allow him to participate meaningfully in society.”

Ms Scanlon said it should not matter “what your postcode or background is” because every child deserved a quality education.

BEHIND MEAGHAN SCANLON’S METEORIC RISE

Pre-poll voting at Nerang. Photo of Meaghan Scanlon handing out how to vote flyers. Photo by Richard Gosling

Her family background also strongly influenced her thinking about “listening to community” and governments falling into the trap of having “callous disregard” for people’s jobs.

“My dad was one of those frontline service workers, serving with Queensland police, based in Surfers Paradise in his later years,” she said.

“My mum was a public servant for over 30 years, although she did not wear a uniform. She took great pride in her job and worked hard.

“Like many Queenslanders, I will never forget when (former premier) Campbell Newman and many of the residual members of parliament sitting on the other side of this chamber cut 14,000 public service jobs.”

Ms Scanlon said her mother was from Moe in Victoria and “came from humble beginnings”, living with five brothers and sisters in a three-bedroom housing commission home.

“Her great grandfather was a coal miner who tragically died of black lung. This consequently led my great grandfather to become a lifelong member of the labour movement fighting for workplace conditions and rights,” she said.

Ms Scanlon said her father had also lived in state-assisted housing, at Inala, and his dad was an electrician involved in the infamous SEQEB dispute of the mid-1980s, when a strike and mass sacking of South East Queensland Electricity Board workers led to a bitter industrial confrontation and prolonged disruption of power supplies.

“I never had the opportunity to meet my grandfather as he died during the industrial dispute. However, his disdain for (then premier) Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s autocratic style of government certainly lives in me today,” she said.

Meaghan Scanlon celebrating her election win. Picture Mike Batterham

After doorknocking a large part of her Gaven electorate, Ms Scanlon said she knew many people who were on low wages and worried about cuts to penalty rates.

“I heard from many people who are living pay cheque to pay cheque. The Gold Coast is often seen for its glitz and glamour, however there are many people in my electorate doing it tough,” she said.

“It’s a privilege to rise in this House today as the one and only Labor member elected to Parliament from my region for almost eight years. It’s unhealthy for a city to be dominated by one party.”

Ms Scanlon said the Newman government, despite holding every single Gold Coast seat, had failed to contribute a single dollar to the M1 despite knowing the Commonwealth Games was fast approaching.