Justin Madden - Political Career

Political Career

After retiring from football in 1997, Madden continued to work as an architect. The Essendon and Carlton Football Clubs agreed to name future contests between the two clubs the Madden Cup, in honour of both the Madden brothers. By this time, Madden was also a life member at Carlton.

Madden's nomination as a Labor candidate for the Legislative Council seat of Doutta Galla Province in the leadup to the 1999 state election came as a surprise to many. However, he attained pre-selection, and was subsequently elected. When Labor won a surprise victory at the election, Madden found himself appointed Minister for Sport and Recreation, despite having no prior political experience. This was in spite of rumours that he had specifically requested not to be given Sport and Recreation, but instead had asked to be made responsible for Education. He was initially given the additional portfolio of Youth Affairs, but this was replaced with the Commonwealth Games after the 2002 election.

In the wake of reforms to the Legislative Council which cut the number of members, Madden was initially placed in danger of losing his pre-selection, but was saved by intervention from Premier Steve Bracks. This initially saw him pre-selected for the Legislative Assembly seat of Bundoora, vacated by former minister Sherryl Garbutt. However, after the sudden retirement of another former minister, Mary Delahunty, in Northcote, another deal was arranged which saw Madden instead remain in a safe position on the Legislative Council ticket. At the 2006 Victoria State election he was elected to the Legislative Council as a member for the Western Metropolitan Region.

In mid-2006 and early 2007 Madden made reference to "McMansions", stating that too many Victorians are building large homes. This statement became very controversial after it was discovered Madden himself had a sprawling home and had in fact applied to renovate and conduct a major extension onto his home, thus creating much discussion on outspoken journalist Neil Mitchell's talk-back radio program on 3AW. The Minister has since completed his extensions and defended his statements.

Madden was a keynote speaker at the 2008 Metropolis Congress in Sydney October 2008. Madden addressed world mayors and industry leaders on urban development and Metropolitan Performance Management.

On 25 February 2010 the ABC revealed an email mistakenly sent by Mr Madden's media adviser containing a media strategy document. The document included a possible strategy for dealing with the proposed development of the heritage listed Windsor Hotel in Melbourne:

Windsor Advisory Committee report is expected to recommend that development go ahead;

Strategy at this stage is to release it for public comment, as this affects the entire community, and then use those responses as reason to halt it, as we have listened to community views.

In the 2010 Victoria state election he retired from the Legislative Council and was elected to the Legislative Assembly seat of Essendon.