Ken Vaughan

Who is Ken Vaughan?

Kenneth Hamilton "Ken" Vaughan was an Australian politician.

Vaughan's father Clifford Llewelyn Vaughan, a butcher, died from blood poisoning in 1939 and he was raised by his mother, Ruby Sarah, in Richmond, attending school in Charters Towers. He was sent to Brisbane to live with his aunt in 1950 to begin work as a clerk for Queensland Railways. He concluded his apprenticeship in 1955, but was conscripted for national service in August 1956, serving as an army sergeant at Wacol. In 1958 he was elected shop steward for the Electrical Trades Union, and in 1959 married Lesley Cowdroy, in which year he also joined the Australian Labor Party.

In 1974 Vaughan contested the Senate unsuccessfully, and was subsequently appointed the ETU's assistant state secretary. In 1977 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for the seat of Nudgee. When Labor won office in 1989 under Wayne Goss, Vaughan was appointed Minister for Resource Industries. In 1991 he was appointed Minister for Employment, Training and Industrial Relations, but he retired to the backbench in 1992 and from politics in 1995.