Frances Bedford

Frances Bedford
JP MHA
Deputy Speaker
Assumed office
6 May 2014
Preceded by Gay Thompson
Chairman of Committees
Assumed office
6 May 2014
Preceded by Gay Thompson
Member of the South Australian Parliament
for Florey
Assumed office
11 October 1997
Preceded by Sam Bass
Personal details
Born (1953-11-05) 5 November 1953
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality Australian
Political party Labor (1997–2017)
Independent (2017–present)

Frances Ellen Bedford (born 5 November 1953) is an Australian politician, representing the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Florey since the 1997 state election.

Early life

Bedford was born in Sydney and moved to Melbourne and then Adelaide after the death of her mother. She became involved in politics and became an electorate officer for former Labor MP Peter Duncan.[1]

Parliament

Bedford was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Florey at the 1997 state election for the Australian Labor Party.

Bedford (left) presenting an award in 2006.

Hailing from the Labor Left, Bedford has described herself as being South Australia's most left-wing MP. Her support for the Relationships Bill 2005, a bill which extends legal protections to same-sex couples, has made her a target of fundamentalist groups. Her opinions are considered by some as being incompatible with the opinions of her 'bible belt' electorate. Despite this, she was returned with a large majority at the landslide 2006 state election with a technically safe 62.1 percent two-party vote from an 8.5-point two-party swing, defeating Liberal candidate and Assemblies of God pastor Pat Trainor. She has otherwise won the seat marginally since 1997. At the 2014 state election, Bedford held Florey with a margin of 2.5 percent.

Bedford resigned from Labor and became an independent on 28 March 2017 after Labor's Jack Snelling won Florey pre-selection partly as a result of the major electoral redistribution which moved two-thirds of Playford voters in to Florey ahead of the 2018 state election. As with the rest of the crossbench, Bedford will continue to provide confidence and supply support to the incumbent minority Labor government. She has not decided if she will re-contest Florey as an independent.[2] A ReachTEL poll conducted on 2 March 2017 of 606 voters in post-redistribution Florey indicated a 33.4 percent primary vote for Bedford running as an independent which would likely see Labor's Snelling defeated after preferences.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Ms Frances Ellen BEDFORD JP MP: Parliament@Work biography
  2. ↑ "Bedford bombshell "won't make much difference", Jay insists". InDaily. 29 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  3. ↑ Labor polling shows boundary redraw appeal loss means Jack Snelling could lose to veteran party MP Frances Bedford: The Advertiser 10 March 2017
South Australian House of Assembly
Preceded by
Sam Bass		 Member for Florey
1997–present 		Incumbent
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