Before the 2015 election, Madden was a
lawyer and councillor for
Somerset Regional Council from 2012 to 2015.
Queensland state election results Jim Madden was the
Labor candidate for
Ipswich West in the
2015 Queensland state election. He ran against sitting
Liberal National member
Sean Choat. Madden won the district with 57.72 percent of the
two-party-preferred vote and a positive
swing of 14.87 percent. Madden was re-elected after the
2017 Queensland state election with 58.7 percent of the two-candidate-preferred vote. At the
2020 Queensland state election, Madden was re-elected with 50.1 percent of the first preference vote and 64.3 percent of the two-candidate-preferred vote.
Member for Ipswich West In October 2015,
Liberal National member
Ian Rickuss called some Labor
MPs, including Madden, "
drag queens". Madden responded that Rickuss was "out of touch" and that "jokes made at the expense of the
LGBTI community are unacceptable now." Ethics committee members were prohibited from revealing information about their deliberations. He thought his comments to a
Queensland Times journalist were "innocuous" but admitted he "should not have spoken to him at all." In March 2017, Madden supported the Criminal Law Amendment Bill which removed "unwanted sexual advancements" as a
partial defence for
defendants accused of
murder. He described the previous law as a "
gay panic defence" which was "archaic". Madden supported an amendment lowering the gestation limit from 22 to 16 weeks. On 18 April 2023, he announced his intention to retire from politics at the
2024 election. He resigned early on 27 January 2024 to stand for election to the
Ipswich City Council. ==Personal life==