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David Hamill

Australian politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ5234670
Source-derived summary

David John Hamill (born 18 September 1957) is an Australian former politician who served in a number of positions, including Minister for Transport and Minister Assisting the Premier on Economic and Trade Development, Minister for Education and treasurer. He was elected to the Queensland Parliament as member for Ipswich in 1983 and held the seat until 2001. He was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 and in 2009 he made a Member of the General Division of the Order of Australia award.

Early life

Prior to his election he had been a lecturer/tutor in political science at the University of Queensland and later a research officer with the then federal leader of the ALP and later, Governor General Bill Hayden.

Awarded the Queensland Rhodes Scholarship in 1979, David took a BA (Hons) from Queensland University and then an MA from Oxford.

He was president of the Ipswich Electorate Executive 1982–89. State president, Young Labor, 1978; president Oxley Federal Divisional Executive 1984–88; delegate to various committees, State Council, State Conference and national Conference.

Political career

Elected on 22 October 1983 as the State Member for Ipswich following the retirement of Sir Llew Edwards. In Opposition between 1983 and 1989 he was variously Opposition Spokesperson on Family Services, Youth and Education.

From December 1989 until February 1996, he was a member of the Goss Labor Cabinet, initially as Minister for Transport and Minister Assisting the Premier on Economic and Trade Development, where he undertook fundamental reform of the transport system and particularly Queensland Rail, and then as Minister for Education.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “David Hamill” is australian politician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through David, Hamill and Australian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1957, 1983, 2001, 2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1957-01-01. For this dossier, David, Hamill and Australian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “australian politician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5234670. VIAF identifies the subject as 56046686. The Library of Congress control number is n2006089504. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1983, 2001 and 2009.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “David Hamill”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow David Hamill primary sources, David Hamill archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “David Hamill”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from David Hamill” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.