Tim Read

Dr. Tim Read was a man of quiet conviction and rare grace — a physician, researcher, and parliamentarian who brought the same principled care to his patients, his science, and his community. Born in Melbourne in 1962, Tim discovered early that public health was not merely a profession but a calling, one he would pursue with unflinching dedication for more than four decades. After completing his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Melbourne, Tim worked as a general practitioner before finding his vocation in sexual health and HIV medicine. From 1998 he served as a sexual health physician and medical coordinator of the HIV clinic at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, and later as a sessional physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Never content to stop learning, he completed a Postgraduate Diploma of Epidemiology in 2007 and, in 2014, a PhD from Monash University focused on the epidemiology of HPV, the early detection of anal cancer, and HIV control. He published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles — a body of work that shaped clinical practice across Australia. Tim's activism predated his medical career. In the mid-1980s, as a young man who would not stand by while tobacco companies plastered billboards with enticements to smoke, he joined BUGA-UP — Billboard-Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions — and was arrested for spray-painting health warnings on tobacco advertising. It was vintage Tim: principled, a little mischievous, and entirely unapologetic. His motto, worn as a badge of honour, was: "Don't get mad, get elected." In November 2018 he did exactly that, winning the Victorian seat of Brunswick for the Greens — the first non-Labor-aligned MP elected there in over a century. He was re-elected in 2022. In Parliament, Tim was the sole medical doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic, a tireless advocate for pill-testing, prison reform, and anti-corruption, and from March 2023 the Chair of the Integrity and Oversight Committee. He believed, simply, that "politics is hope in motion." In January 2026 Tim announced he would retire at the November election after receiving a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma. He delivered his valedictory speech on 29 July 2026 and spent his remaining weeks fighting the planned closure of VicHealth. He died on 19 September 2026, surrounded by his wife Angela, and their children Louisa and Martin. He is remembered by those who knew him as the kindest, funniest, and most fundamentally decent of people — a man who spoke truth to power and left Victoria a better, fairer place.