Trevor Coomber

Trevor McDougall Coomber (born 13 June 1949) is a former Australian politician.

He was born in Charleville to schoolteacher Laurence Edward Coomber and Sybil Harding, née Lightbody, a secretary. He was educated at public schools in Pelican, Lowmead and Rosedale and at high schools in Bundaberg and Mount Gravatt. In 1970 he graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Pharmacy, and began work as a pharmacist in Brisbane. On 8 April 1972 he married Roberta Anne Richardson, also a pharmacist; they would have four children before their separation. Coomber moved to the Gold Coast in 1973 and to Palm Beach in 1974, where he was a member of the Beach Protection Authority of Queensland and patron of several community groups.[1]

A member of the Liberal Party since 1974, he resigned from the party in 1981 over retrospective taxation. In 1982 he was elected to Gold Coast City Council as a National, although he resigned from the party in 1986 after land development pressures on the Gold Coast led to a disagreement. During his tenure as an Alderman, he would meet and later marry Kathryn Smith, a personal assistant. After an unsuccessful run for the state seat of Currumbin as an independent in 1986, he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1989 as a Liberal. In 1992 he challenged National Party leader Rob Borbidge in Surfers Paradise, but was defeated.[1]

After leaving politics, he returned to community pharmacy, operating several pharmacies under the Terry White brand. His association with Terry White strengthened, to include holding a position on the group's Board. In 2018, Coomber's operating company would enter administration and eventually be wound up by liquidators in 2019 with unsupported liabilities in the order of AU$19 million.[2]