Les Diplock

Who was Les Diplock?

Leslie Frank Louis "Les" Diplock CMG was an Australian politician.

Diplock was born in South Brisbane to house-painter Louis Diplock and Louisa May, née Lucas and attended state and private schools in Rockhampton. He was a student teacher from 1914 and taught in Rockhampton, Toowoomba and Bribie Island from 1918 to 1924. He married Olive Constance Becker on 20 December 1920 at Taroom. He was head teacher at six successive schools before acting as district inspector of schools for the south-west region from June to December 1952. He was elected to the seat of Condamine in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland in 1953 as a Labor Party candidate.

Diplock was appointed minister for public instruction in 1956, and his ministry was chiefly remembered for a controversial bill providing for a government appointee to head an appointments and promotions repeal board at the University of Queensland; the bill was repealed when the Coalition won government in 1957. During the Labor split of that year, Diplock sided with his leader Vince Gair in splitting away to form the Queensland Labor Party, and he retained Condamine in that year's election.