George Pearce (Queensland politician)

Pearce was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, and attended Rockhampton State High School. He married Nell Graham in 1939, with whom he had two sons, Greg and Laurie. After leaving school, Pearce worked as the manager of a sports store for a period. He was rejected for military service as medically unfit, but during the war worked for the Australian Red Cross as secretary of the local branch and area officer for Central Queensland. At the time of his election to parliament in 1949, he was working as a sales representative for a printing house.[1]

At the 1946 federal election, Pearce served on the campaign committee of Charles Davidson, who defeated former prime minister Frank Forde in the Division of Capricornia. Prior to the 1949 election, Davidson switched to the new Division of Dawson. Pearce replaced him as the Liberal candidate in Capricornia, and retained the seat despite a swing to the Labor Party.[2] He was re-elected in 1951, 1954, 1955, and 1958.[3]

In 1960, Pearce was made Government Whip in the House of Representatives, having previously been deputy whip under Hubert Opperman.[4] The following year, he chaired the select committee into voting rights that reported that universal suffrage should be granted to Indigenous Australians. The committee's recommendations were passed into law in 1962.[5] Pearce lost his seat in parliament at the 1961 election. He was defeated by the Labor candidate George Gray on an 11-point swing, which was partially due to an unfavourable redistribution.[3]

In 1962, Pearce was reported to be working as a business consultant.[6] He later became the executive director of Pacific Sporting Pools, which set up betting pools on Australian sports but ran its operations from Nauru in order to circumvent local gambling laws. It was formally launched on 1 June 1969, but suspended its operations after six weeks following active opposition from the Victorian and New South Wales state governments. Pearce resigned his position at that time. He was also a director of two related companies, Central Pacific Hotels and Central Pacific Airways. A hotel was built on the island, but the airline did not become operational.[7][8]

Pearce turned 100 years old in September 2017. He is the first member of federal parliament to live to be 100 or over, and he and Bill Grayden are the only surviving MPs elected during the 1940s, making them the earliest elected MPs still alive.[9]

• List of centenarians (politicians and civil servants)