McMullan was born in Perth on 10 December 1947.[1] He attended Guildford Primary School and Governor Stirling Senior High School.[2] He was raised in a working-class family; his older brothers left school prematurely to support the family, but he was able to continue to Year 12 after receiving a state government bursary.[3]
McMullan graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and a Bachelor of Economics in industrial relations.[2] He was the first member of his family to attend university.[3] He was active in the movement against the Vietnam War and was conscripted for military service in 1968 but successfully argued in court that he was a conscientious objector.[4] After university he tutored in industrial relations and worked as a freelance industrial advocate from 1971 to 1973.[2]
Early political involvement
McMullan joined the Australian Labor Party in 1967 while at university. Active in student politics, he was elected to the ALP state executive the following year and in 1971 became the state president of Young Labor.[2]
McMullan was appointed state secretary of the Western Australian branch of the ALP in 1975. He was elected national secretary in 1981,[1] and moved to Canberra.[5] His tenure included the ALP's victory at the 1983, 1984 and 1987 federal elections. In December 1987 he announced he would seek ALP preselection to fill the casual vacancy caused by Susan Ryan's resignation from the Senate.[6]
Parliamentary career
On 16 February 1988,[7] McMullan was chosen by a joint sitting of the House of Representatives and the Senate to fill a casual vacancy in the representation of the Australian Capital Territory in the Senate, caused by the resignation of Susan Ryan.[8] This was the second (and last) time that a territory senate vacancy was filled in this way.[9]
McMullan became Manager of Opposition Business (opposite number to the Leader of the House) in 1998, and following Labor's 2001 electoral defeat he was made Shadow Treasurer. In July 2003 McMullan was replaced as Shadow Treasurer by Mark Latham and relegated to the post of Shadow Minister for Finance, taking on additional responsibility for Reconciliation and Indigenous Affairs. McMullan then became Shadow Minister for Finance and Shadow Minister for Small Business. [citation needed]
In Question Time in Parliament, McMullan gained a reputation for repeatedly asking the same question in different words if he did not get a direct answer. After the 2004 election, McMullan did not stand for election to the Shadow Cabinet, in what was widely seen as an expression of lack of confidence in the leadership of Mark Latham.[citation needed]
Following the election of Kevin Rudd on 4 December 2006 as Opposition Leader in place of Kim Beazley, McMullan returned to the front bench in the junior role of Labor spokesperson on Federal-State Relations,[11] the reform of which was one of Rudd's declared priorities.[citation needed]
In the 2007 federal election McMullan held his seat of Fraser, albeit with a two-party preferred swing to Labor of less than 2%, one-third of the national average swing to Labor.[12]
When the First Rudd Ministry was sworn in on 3 December 2007, McMullan was given the junior post of Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance.[13] On 19 January 2010, McMullan announced he would not contest the next federal election.[14] He retired prior to the 2010 federal election.
