Telmo Languiller

Telmo Ramon Languiller-Tornesi (born 31 July 1957) is an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 1999, representing the electorates of Sunshine (1999–2002), Derrimut (2002–2014) and Tarneit (2014–present). From December 2014, he was Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, but resigned in February 2017 in the wake of an expenses scandal.

Languiller was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, but soon migrated to Australia. He attended high school at Flemington in Victoria, and received a Bachelor of Arts majoring in sociology and politics from Footscray Institute of Technology. He had previously worked as a labourer, a Spanish interpreter, and a trade unionist. From 1993 to 1996 he was electorate officer for former Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe, and became Chief of Staff for Andrew Theophanous in 1996 until 1999.^[1]

In 1999, he was selected as the Labor candidate for the safe seat of Sunshine, succeeding Ian Baker whom he had beaten in the preselection, and was duly elected. His seat was abolished in 2002 and replaced with Derrimut, which Languiller won. In 2002 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Community Services, and he has been an Acting Speaker since 2004. In 2006 he moved to the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs position, and then to Human Services in 2007.^[1]

Following the election of the Daniel Andrews Labor government at the 2014 state election, Languiller was elected Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

In February 2017, The Age newspaper reported that Languiller had claimed $37,678 in second residence allowances to live in Queenscliff, a considerable distance from his western suburbs electorate of Tarneit. Languiller acknowledged that claiming the allowance had not met "community standards", and offered to repay the money. On 25 February, he resigned as speaker.^[2]

References

External links

• Parliamentary voting record of Telmo Languiller at Victorian Parliament Tracker