Steve Fielding

Steven Fielding (born 17 October 1960), is a Victorian Senator and the Federal parliamentary leader of the Family First Party in Australia. Fielding was born in Melbourne and educated at RMIT University, where he graduated in engineering^[1], and at Monash University, where he gained an MBA. He worked as an engineer and a senior superannuation executive before entering politics. He was a member of the Knox City Council in 2003-04. Fielding is a member of CityLife Church, a large Pentecostal church in Melbourne. Fielding was elected to represent Victoria in the Senate at the 2004 federal election. He is the first representative of Family First to be elected to the Federal Parliament. Since he polled less than 2% of the popular vote, Fielding's election was not expected. Like many Senators he gained a quota under the Senate's proportional representation system by receiving preferences from other parties (see Australian electoral system). The Australian Democrats and the Australian Labor Party agreed to swap preferences with Family First. But Fielding benefited from the larger-than-expected surplus of Liberal preferences, and stayed in the count long enough to receive Democrat and Labor preferences, defeating the Australian Greens' candidate David Risstrom for the last Senate place in Victoria. (For more detail see this explanation of the count by Antony Green). While Family First is generally regarded as a conservative party, Fielding has said that he will not be an automatic supporter of government legislation in the Senate, where the Howard government has a majority of two, with a margin of 1. On some issues which he sees as affecting the well-being of families, such as industrial relations, he has indicated disagreement with government policies. With some backbenchers being willing to cross the floor, Fielding's vote has been important on some of the government's more controversial legislation. His vote ensured the passage of Voluntary student unionism,^[2] the overturning of civil unions legislation in the Australian Capital Territory,^[3] and changes to media ownership laws.^[4] Conversely, his intention to vote "no" ensured the defeat of the government's proposed tightening of asylum seeker laws.^[5] Fielding's decision to support the Howard government's Voluntary student unionism legislation resulted in his office being targeted by anti-VSU activists, who vandalised the walls with pro-union graffiti.^[6] Fielding and his wife Susan have three children, James, Campbell and Gabrielle

See also

• Steve Fielding's Web page

References