Victorian Greens MP Dr Tim Read has died at the age of 64.
In January, Dr Read announced he would not contest the November state election after being diagnosed with metastatic cancer.
During his final year in parliament, he campaigned against the Victorian Government’s decision to close VicHealth, widely regarded as the world’s first health promotion foundation. Dr Read said the organisation promoted messages that were absent during his youth and suggested that greater exposure to skin cancer prevention campaigns may have influenced his own health outcomes.
Victoria Greens leader Ellen Sandell said the Brunswick MP was respected and well liked across the political spectrum.
“Tim was a brilliant local MP, doctor and scientist, but to those who knew him, he was also the kindest, funniest and most fundamentally decent of people,” Sandell said.
“Tim never held back from speaking truth to power, whether it was getting arrested for spray-painting health messages on tobacco billboards before being elected, or challenging the Premier during Question Time.
“Yet he was also one of the most respected MPs in state parliament, admired across the community for that rare combination in a politician: conviction, integrity, wit and genuine humility.”
Dr Read was first elected to parliament in 2018, winning a seat previously held by Labor.
Colleagues highlighted his advocacy on a range of public health reforms, including pill testing, tobacco licensing, the abolition of public drunkenness offences, a statewide plan to eradicate congenital syphilis and HIV transmission, reducing restrictions on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, and a statutory ban on solitary confinement in prisons.
He also advocated for stronger integrity measures in politics. Among the reforms he promoted were public ministerial diaries, the abolition of group voting tickets and “preference whispering”, and the creation of an independent parliamentary integrity commissioner. Several of these initiatives were later adopted by the Victorian Government.
After graduating from university, Dr Read worked as a general practitioner in several community health centres. He later completed specialist training and, from 1998, worked as a sexual health physician and medical coordinator of the HIV clinic at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre. In 2005, he also began working as a sessional sexual health physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
As a medical researcher, Dr Read published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers, focusing largely on human papillomavirus, HIV treatment and prevention, and Mycoplasma genitalium. His HIV research included work on the introduction of rapid testing and self-testing initiatives.
He was involved in successful campaigns to reduce restrictions on blood donation by gay and bisexual men and continued to advocate for further reforms.
Alongside his medical career, Dr Read completed a PhD in 2014.
