Stirling Hinchliffe calls it quits after 17 years to ‘put family first’

Queensland Labor minister Stirling Hinchliffe will announce his retirement from politics on Thursday but insists his departure is his own decision.

Queensland Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe will not contest the October 2024 state election. Picture: Getty Images

Queensland Labor minister Stirling Hinchliffe will retire from politics at next year’s state election, but insists his departure is his own decision and not forced by the party’s gender rules.

Mr Hinchliffe, the Tourism, Sport and Innovation Minister, and a close Right factional ally of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, is likely to be replaced as Labor’s candidate for the Brisbane seaside seat of Sandgate by political adviser Bisma Asif. The ALP this week called for nominations for all electorates it holds, after Ms Palaszczuk challenged her MPs to confirm by the end of the month if they will recontest.

The father-of-three told The Australian that 17 years after first being elected to Queensland parliament in 2006, it was time for him to put his family, especially his wife Megan Clarke, first.

“Now is the right time for me and my family … it’s time for my wife to get to make the final decisions. Megan has been my greatest supporter in everything that I’ve done, and allowed me to be on this journey,” he said. “Having that chance for her to make the final call on things is owed to her.”

Mr Hinchliffe said he had Ms Palaszczuk’s backing to remain in his ministerial portfolio until the poll.

Under Labor’s affirmative action rules, at least two sitting male Labor MPs have to be replaced by female candidates at next October’s election.

Controversial backbencher and Ipswich West MP Jim Madden, of the Left faction, announced in April that he would not recontest, after denying allegations of coercive control and workplace bullying.

Mr Hinchliffe’s confirmation of his impending retirement will satisfy the Right’s AA quota. He said he was not being forced out by the ALP’s gender rules.

“This is definitely my decision,” Mr Hinchliffe said. “I’m very happy, as someone who understands the affirmative action rules, and as someone who was the convener of the ALP rules committee that oversaw the implementation of these rules … that the timing (of my decision) will mean that there’ll be an opportunity for more women to come into the parliamentary Labor caucus.”

Ms Asif, a policy adviser for federal Aged Care Minister Anika Wells, was born in South Asia and speaks four languages.

Mr Hinchliffe had two stints in parliament. From 2006 to 2012, he served as the MP for Stafford. He was re-elected in 2015, and has served as a cabinet minister under Anna Bligh and Ms Palaszczuk.