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Desley Scott

Australian politician in the Queensland state parliament

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ5264587
Source-derived summary

Desley Carleton Scott (born 27 June 1943 in Toowoomba) is an Australian retired Labor Party politician who was the member for Woodridge in the Parliament of Queensland from 2001 to 2015.

Scott was elected to parliament at the 2001 state election, after working as an electoral officer for 16 years. She holds a dental nurse certificate.

Due to the tiny size of the ALP caucus since the party's defeat at the 2012 election, she was a member of the shadow cabinet but did not become a minister as she retired at the 2015 election.

At the 2012 election, Scott retained her seat with a significant margin for a Labor MP of 5.8%, after a 19.57% swing against her party. According to Independent MP Alex Douglas, "She was completely focussed on the needs of Woodridge residents, which in turn earned her the respect of her constituents.", which led to her being one of only seven Queensland ALP MPs being elected at the 2012 election.

Opposition Period 2012–2015

Under Queensland ALP Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk, Scott was given the Shadow Portfolios of Disabilities, Communities, Child Safety, Mental Health, Women and Multicultural Affairs. She was also the Deputy Opposition Whip.

References

External links

"Desley Scott: a pollie for good" at the Wayback Machine (archived 20 August 2006) by Faith Williams.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Desley Scott” as australian politician in the Queensland state parliament. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1943, 2001, 2015, 2012—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1943-06-27. The account is most persuasive where Desley, Scott and Australian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as australian politician in the Queensland state parliament. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5264587. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 2001, 2015 and 2012.

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 “Desley Scott”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Desley Scott primary sources, Desley Scott archive and Desley 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 “Desley Scott”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Desley Scott” 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.