Nicholas David Champion (born 27 February 1972) is an Australian politician. He is a member of the South Australian Labor Party and has served in 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 South Australian Legislative Council, Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament House in the st ...

since the

2022 South Australian state election The 2022 South Australian state election was held on 19 March 2022 to elect members to the 55th Parliament of South Australia. All 47 seats in the House of Assembly (the lower house, whose members were elected at the 2018 election), and half t ...

, representing the seat of Taylor. He has served as the Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Housing and Urban Development and Minister for Planning in the Malinauskas ministry since March 2022. Champion previously served in federal parliament as a Labor Party member in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 2007 to 2022, first representing the

Division of Wakefield The Division of Wakefield was an Australian electoral division in the state of South Australia. The seat was a hybrid rural-urban electorate that stretched from Salisbury in the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide at the south of the seat right ...

until its abolition in 2019, before transferring to the new

Division of Spence The Division of Spence is an electoral district for the Australian House of Representatives. It is located in the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide in South Australia. Geography Federal electoral division boundaries in Australia are determine ...

Early life

Champion was born in

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. He spent his early years in the rural town of

Kapunda Kapunda is a town on the Light River and near the Barossa Valley in South Australia. It was established after a discovery in 1842 of significant copper deposits. The population was 2,917 at the 2016 Australian census. The southern entrance t ...

and completed his secondary education at Kapunda High School while working part-time as a fruit picker. He also previously worked as a cleaner, salesman and trolley collector. He completed an Arts degree and a Graduate Diploma in Communication at the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...

. Champion became a union official at 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) in 1994, serving as an organiser, training officer and occupational health and safety officer. He is aligned with the

Labor Right The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more economically conservative and, in some cases, more socially conservative. The Labor ...

. Champion served as South Australian State President of the Australian Labor Party from 2005 to 2006 and was a ministerial adviser to state Labor Minister

Michael Wright Michael Wright may refer to: Sportspeople *Michael Wright (Australian footballer) (born 1959), former VFL footballer for South Melbourne *Michael Wright (basketball) (1980–2015), murdered American–Turkish basketball player * Michael Wright (cyc ...

Federal parliament

Champion won the seat of

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

at the 2007 election, defeating incumbent

Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Au ...

member

David Fawcett David Julian Fawcett (born 23 October 1963) is an Australian Liberal Party politician who has been a Senator for South Australia since 2011. Fawcett served in the Morrison Government as Assistant Minister for Defence from 2018 to 2019. Fawcett ...

with a 56.6 percent two-party vote. He was the third Labor member to ever win the seat. Champion made it a safe Labor seat on paper at the 2010 election with a 62 percent two-party vote, and became the first Labor member to be re-elected to Wakefield. The South Australian federal redistribution in 2011 had the greatest impact on Wakefield where the Labor margin declined by 1.5 points. Champion retained Wakefield at the 2013 election on a 53.4 percent two-party vote even as Labor lost government, marking the first time the non-Labor parties won government at an election without winning Wakefield. Champion increased his margin at the 2016 election with a 61 percent two-party vote, again making Wakefield a safe Labor seat on paper. Champion served as a shadow parliamentary secretary (shadow assistant minister from 2016) in

Bill Shorten William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician currently serving as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. He previously served as leader of the opposition ...

's shadow ministry from 2014 to 2019. In August 2019, he called for the nationalisation of

Port Darwin Port Darwin is the port in Darwin, Northern Territory, in northern Australia. The port has operated in a number of locations, including Stokes Hill Wharf, Cullen Bay and East Arm Wharf. In 2015, a 99-year lease was granted to the Chinese-owned ...

following its lease to a Chinese-owned company.

State parliament

In 2020, Champion was rumoured to be considering a switch to state parliament, initially through the

electoral district of Light An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

in the

, following the release of draft new boundaries that would have left the seat vacant. That plan was thwarted by the final report of the Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission, however Champion was again the topic of speculation in January 2021, this time for the safe seat of

Taylor Taylor, Taylors or Taylor's may refer to: People * Taylor (surname) ** List of people with surname Taylor * Taylor (given name), including Tayla and Taylah * Taylor sept, a branch of Scottish clan Cameron * Justice Taylor (disambiguation) Pl ...

. Both state electorates are covered by Champion's larger federal

division of Spence The Division of Spence is an electoral district for the Australian House of Representatives. It is located in the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide in South Australia. Geography Federal electoral division boundaries in Australia are determine ...

. On 13 February 2021, Champion was pre-selected for the House of Assembly seat of Taylor for the 2022 South Australian election. On 22 February 2022, he resigned his federal seat of Spence to contest the state election a month later. A

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in his seat of Spence was not held due to the pending federal election. Taylor was a comfortably safe Labor seat, and Champion easily retained the seat. He was immediately promoted to Cabinet, serving as the Minister for Trade and Investment, Minister for Housing and Urban Development and Minister for Planning in the

Malinauskas ministry The Malinauskas ministry is the 74th and current ministry (cabinet) of the Government of South Australia, led by Peter Malinauskas of the South Australian Labor Party. It was formed after Labor's victory at the 2022 state election and succeede ...

Personal life

Champion is married to Fiona Webber, a former ABC journalist and Chief of Staff to a Federal Labor Minister. They were married in Gibraltar after he proposed in the week of the 2013 election. Their first child was born just over a month after the 2016 election. Nick Champion lives outside of the electoral district of Taylor. He is a resident of North Adelaide.

References

External links

*
Summary of parliamentary voting for Nick Champion MP on TheyVoteForYou.org.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Champion, Nick Australian people of Cornish descent Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Wakefield University of South Australia alumni 1972 births Australian trade unionists 21st-century Australian politicians Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Spence