Tim asked that donations in his memory be made to the Inner North Community Foundation or the Victorian Greens.

A message from Ellen Sandell MP, Victorian Greens Leader, on behalf of the Victorian Greens:

The Victorian Greens are truly devastated to announce the death of Tim Read, our dear friend, colleague and beloved MP for Brunswick.

At this time of incredible pain and sadness, we offer our deepest love to his wife Angela, his children Louisa and Martin, and all of Tim’s family and friends.

Tim was a brilliant local MP, doctor and scientist – but to those who knew him, he was also the kindest, funniest and most fundamentally decent of people.

Tim never held back from speaking truth to power, whether it was getting arrested for spray-painting health messages on tobacco billboards prior to getting elected, or taking it up to the Premier in Question Time.

Yet, he was also the most well-liked MP in state parliament, respected across the community for that rarest combination in a politician: conviction, integrity, wit and genuine humility.

He came to politics determined to improve people’s lives and protect our climate and environment, and to do it all while riding a bike and with a huge grin on his face.

Over 8 years in Parliament, Tim’s work delivered real change for Victoria.

His early advocacy led to major public health reforms that ended up becoming reality: pill-testing, tobacco licensing, abolishing public drunkenness laws, a statewide plan to eradicate congenital syphilis and HIV transmission, allowing gay men to donate blood, and a statutory ban on solitary confinement in prisons.

None of these reforms will have Tim’s name on them, but it’s likely none would’ve happened without his advocacy.

During the COVID pandemic we were particularly fortunate to have an infectious diseases doctor in our Greens Party Room and in Parliament.

He applied his experience without partisanship or fanfare, working behind the scenes to improve the Government’s response, and to support health workers, while also never shying from publicly opposing the disproportionate police response to breaches of public health laws.

Tim’s contribution to Victoria’s anti-corruption and integrity laws was perhaps his biggest achievement.

He introduced laws, later picked up by the Government, to: force ministers to make their diaries public, end ‘preference whispering’ and dodgy Group Voting Tickets, and create an independent parliamentary integrity commissioner.

As the first ever non-government chair of the Integrity and Oversight Committee, he led the landmark inquiry that helped strengthen Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog IBAC.

Victoria is a better and fairer place, and politics in the future will be much more accountable and transparent, because of Tim.

Tim’s personal integrity was unmatched.

He could always see the moral question at the heart of every political issue. It’s why he was so outspoken when it came to supporting the cause of the Palestinian people, and why he continued to remind us all about how much coal was being burned in Victoria each day.

He never lost perspective about what was truly important.

It’s a measure of Tim’s character that after his diagnosis of metastatic melanoma, he sought neither accolades nor sympathy. Instead he began a campaign to save VicHealth, our only health promotion agency, so other families wouldn’t lose a loved one to preventable disease.

Tim showed what the best of politics can look like – “hope in motion,” as he called it in his valedictory speech.

The image of him pulling up on his bike with an enthusiastic grin, at a climate protest, a community meeting or at the lights on Sydney Road, will stay with us forever.

Vale, our brilliant friend. We will miss you.