Frances Ellen Bedford (born 5 November 1953) is an Australian politician who represented the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was creat ...

seat of Florey from 1997 state election until

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, first for the Labor Party and from 2017 as an independent.

Early life

Bedford was born in Sydney and moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and then

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

after the death of her mother. She became involved in politics and became an electorate officer for former Labor MP Peter Duncan.

Parliament

Bedford was elected to the

seat of Florey at the 1997 state election for the Labor Party. Hailing from the

Labor Left The Labor Left, also known as the Progressive Left or Socialist Left, is political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It competes with the more economically liberal Labor Right faction. The Labor Left operates autonomously in each s ...

, 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 The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's aver ...

' 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 A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...

vote from an 8.5-point two-party swing, defeating

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

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 Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

on 28 March 2017 after Labor's

Jack Snelling John James "Jack" Snelling (born 8 November 1972) is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor member for the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Playford from the 1997 election until his retirement in 2018. Snelling left the Labo ...

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 A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

, Bedford continued to provide

confidence and supply In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house. A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of parl ...

support to the minority Labor government. 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 the endorsed Labor candidate defeated after preferences. In December 2017, Snelling decided not to nominate for Florey, and was replaced as Labor's endorsed candidate by Rik Morris. Bedford successfully re-contested Florey as an independent at the 2018 state election, gaining a 30.6 percent first preference vote and defeating Morris on preferences. In October 2021, Bedford announced she would move to contest the seat of Newland at the 2022 state election. She justified the move citing electoral boundary changes pushing much of her constituents into the Newland electorate for the 2022 state election. She placed third, gaining 12% of the vote, and was defeated.

References

External links

*
Official website of Frances Bedford MP JP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedford, Frances 1953 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia Independent members of the Parliament of South Australia Members of the South Australian House of Assembly 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Women members of the South Australian House of Assembly