Career
He was the Labor member for Maitland in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1981 to 1991. Born in Maitland, Walsh attended Manly Boys" High School and Sydney Technical College before receiving a Bachelor of Arts form the University of Newcastle and a Diploma of Education from the Newcastle College of Advanced Education. In 1981, when the local state Liberal Member of Parliament for Maitland resigned, Walsh was selected as the Labor candidate to contest the by-election.
He was narrowly defeated by the Liberal candidate Peter Toms.
However, the 1981 redistribution made Maitland a solid Labor seat and Walsh easily defeated Toms in the state election later the same year. He was nearly defeated in 1988, surviving by 444 votes, and when the 1991 redistribution gave the seat a 7.4% Liberal margin, Walsh retired from politics.
