David Watson (Queensland politician)
Australian politician (Queensland)
David John Hopetoun Watson (born 29 January 1945) is an Australian former politician.
Early life
Born in Sydney, Watson was educated at the University of Queensland and Ohio State University before becoming an accountant. He was Professor of Accounting and Dean of Commerce and Economics at the University of Queensland before entering politics.
Politics
In 1984, Watson was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Liberal member for Forde. He was defeated in the next federal election in 1987, but in 1989 was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland as the member for Moggill. He was the Queensland Minister for Housing and Public Works 1997–1998 and Leader of the Queensland Liberal Party 1998–2001. As state Liberal leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, he led the Liberals into the 2001 state election, which saw Labor reelected in a record landslide. Watson himself was nearly swept up in that year's massive Labor wave, surviving by only 396 votes. He was left as the only non-Labor MLA from Brisbane.
The public source identifies “David Watson (Queensland politician)” as australian politician (Queensland). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around David, Watson and Queensland.
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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 Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5240870. The first chronological checks are 1945, 1984, 1987 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “David Watson (Queensland politician)” 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.