Former SA treasurer’s new job
A year after announcing his retirement from state politics, the former treasurer lands a new role.
Stephen Mullighan has been appointed Cancer Council SA’s next board chair, a year after announcing his departure from state politics.
Mullighan announced his retirement in September 2025, ending his more than a decade-long political career at the state election in March.
He will take on the new role at the Cancer Council after the organisation’s annual general meeting on October 29.
“Cancer Council SA does work that matters to every part of our community — with almost one in two Australians diagnosed with cancer by the age of 85, that work has never mattered more,” Mullighan said.
“I’m truly honoured to be taking on this role.”
First elected as the Member for Lee in 2014, Mullighan became only the second Labor MP in history to immediately enter Cabinet, serving as Transport and Infrastructure Minister and also later Housing and Urban Development Minister in the Weatherill Government.
Mullighan served as Treasurer from 2022 to 2025, returning the state budget to surplus and keeping it there, improving the state’s credit rating outlook, delivering the nation’s best-performing economy and winning business endorsement as the best state in which to operate.
In addition to approving funding for the state’s non-stop South Road, the Premier said Mullighan played a crucial role in delivering previous major projects, including the Torrens to Darlington and Northern Connector projects, the O-Bahn city access project and city tram extension.
Mullighan will succeed the current SA Cancer Council board chair Karlene Maywald – also a former cabinet minister who represented Chaffey in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1997 to 2010.
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“I want to acknowledge Maywald’s outstanding contribution, and I look forward to building on the strong foundations she leaves behind,” Mullighan said.
Maywald will retire from the Cancer Council board after seven years at the helm.
“What has stayed with me most is how hope takes shape here — through a service people can trust, research breakthroughs that our community backs year after year, and support that reaches patients and families exactly when they need it,” she said.
Cancer Council SA is the state’s leading cancer charity.
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