John James "Jack" Snelling (born 8 November 1972) is a former Australian politician. He was the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

member for 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 Playford from the 1997 election until his retirement in 2018. Snelling left the Labor Party in 2021 to found the

Family First Party The Family First Party was a conservative political party in Australia which existed from 2002 to 2017. It was founded in South Australia where it enjoyed its greatest electoral support. Since the demise of the Australian Conservatives into wh ...

Background

Prior to his election into politics, Snelling was an electoral officer, and a staffer in the

Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA) is the largest private sector trade union in Australia, representing retail, fast-food and warehousing workers, and has branches in every state and territory. Its membership is pre ...

(SDA). Snelling was a supporter of the work of Christopher Pearson.

Parliament

Entering parliament in 1997 at the age of 24, he was the youngest member of the House of Assembly at the time. He was

Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly The Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly is the presiding officer of the South Australian House of Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of South Australia. The other presiding officer is the President of the South Australian Le ...

for the Rann Labor government from 2006 to 2010. He also served as Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees. He is aligned with Labor's right faction. A consequence of the major 2016 electoral redistribution was that two thirds of the voters in Snelling's electorate of Playford will be moved to Florey. On 15 March 2017 he won

preselection to be the candidate for Florey at the 2018 election. The incumbent member for Florey,

Frances Bedford Frances Ellen Bedford (born 5 November 1953) is an Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Florey from 1997 state election until 2022, first for the Labor Party and from 2017 as an independent. E ...

, had also nominated for pre-selection. On 28 March 2017, Bedford resigned from the party after they endorsed Snelling for the seat. 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 Snelling defeated after preferences. Snelling withdrew from the pre-selection on 17 September 2017.

Cabinet

After the 2010 election, Snelling was appointed as the Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Science, Information Economy, Veterans Affairs and Road Safety. Following the parliamentary resignation of Kevin Foley, Snelling was sworn in as the

Treasurer of South Australia The Treasurer of South Australia is the Cabinet minister in the Government of South Australia who is responsible for the financial management of that state's budget sector. The Urban Renewal Authority, trading as Renewal SA, lies within the T ...

on 8 February 2011. Once the ALP had retained power (though dependent on an independent parliamentarian's support) at the 2014 election, Snelling was appointed as the Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts and Minister for Health Industries in the Weatherill

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

.Jack Snelling MP: Premier.sa.gov.au
He resigned from Cabinet on 17 September 2017, and announced that he would not be contesting the 2018 election, for which he had been preselected to the seat of Florey. He also served as Leader of Government Business in the House of Assembly until 2017.

Outside parliament

On 28 July 2021, alongside former minister

Tom Kenyon Thomas Richard Kenyon (born 26 February 1972) is a former Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Newland for the Labor Party from the 2006 election until his defeat in 2018. Kenyon left the Labor ...

, Snelling founded the

, saying that "we are very concerned about religious freedom and attempts to restrict that freedom".

Personal life

Jack Snelling is married to Lucia, and has six children. He met his wife through the

Young Labor Australian Young Labor, also known as the Young Labor Movement or simply Young Labor, is the youth wing of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) representing all ALP members aged between 15 to 26. The organisation operates as a federation with independen ...

movement.

References

External links

Parliamentary Profile: SA Labor website
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Snelling, Jack Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Labor Right politicians University of Adelaide alumni 1972 births Living people Speakers of the South Australian House of Assembly Treasurers of South Australia 21st-century Australian politicians