24 Facts About Wayne Goss

Wayne Keith Goss was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996, becoming the first Labor Premier of the state in over 32 years.

Wayne Goss was born at Mundubbera, Queensland, and grew up at Inala where he was educated at Inala State High School and the University of Queensland where he earned a bachelor of laws degree.

Wayne Goss worked as a solicitor and then with the Aboriginal Legal Service before setting up his own practice, but did not become a member of the Australian Labor Party until the dismissal of Gough Whitlam's government in November 1975.

Wayne Goss entered state politics as a Labor Party MLA in 1983 for the electoral district of Salisbury and, from 1986 onwards, for Logan.

Wayne Goss was elected Leader of the Opposition in March 1988.

Wayne Goss led Labor into the 1989 state election against the National Party government of Russell Cooper.

Wayne Goss seized on National ads that argued his plans to decriminalise homosexuality would result in gays flooding into Queensland.

Wayne Goss replied with ads painting Cooper as a wild-eyed reactionary and a carbon copy of Bjelke-Petersen.

The Wayne Goss Government introduced several electoral and public sector reforms, the most notable being the elimination of the "Bjelkemander" malapportionment that had helped keep the Queensland Nationals in power.

Wayne Goss won a second term at the 1992 state election, maintaining the same 19-seat majority he won in 1989 over the National Party and the Liberal Party.

Wayne Goss' defeat proved to be a harbinger of federal Labor's massive defeat in the federal election held a month later.

Wayne Goss later said that Queensland voters had turned so violently on then-Prime Minister Paul Keating that they had been "sitting on their verandas with baseball bats" waiting for the writs to drop, a phrase that has since entered the Australian political lexicon.

Wayne Goss had begun the process of seeking preselection as the Labor candidate for the federal seat of Oxley in the 1998 election.

Wayne Goss was awarded an MBA at the University of Queensland.

Wayne Goss was awarded honorary doctorates by QUT and Griffith University.

Wayne Goss was Chairman of the Queensland Art Gallery for 3 terms from 1999 until 2008, a period which included the development of the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, and served a term as a Director of the Brisbane Broncos NRL rugby league team.

In business, Wayne Goss served as National Chairman of the Australian section of Deloitte from 2005 to 2013.

Wayne Goss was chairman of engineering firm Ausenco from 2002 until 2013.

From 2003 to 2007, Wayne Goss was on the board of Ingeus Limited, the company founded by Therese Rein, the wife of former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, his former chief-of-staff.

Further, Wayne Goss was Chairman of FreeTV Australia, the lobby group representing the free-to-air television companies in Australia, from 2008 until 2011.

Wayne Goss lived in Brisbane with his wife, Roisin.

Wayne and Roisin Goss had two children, Ryan and Caitlin, both of whom attended the University of Queensland and were awarded Rhodes Scholarships to attend the University of Oxford in 2007 and 2009 respectively.

Wayne Goss battled a recurrent brain tumour for 17 years, undergoing four operations to manage it.

Wayne Goss died aged 63 at his home in Brisbane on 10 November 2014, with his wife and children present.