Richard Manuel Harvey (born 18 April 1985) is an Australian politician. He was a

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 ...

member of 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 ...

from the 2018 state election until 2022, representing Newland. Prior to entering Parliament, Harvey worked as a medical research scientist at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

, researching the bacterial pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Background and early career

Harvey was raised in Lewiston and attended St Brigid's Catholic School and

Xavier College Xavier College is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, founded in 1872 by the Society of Jesus, with its main campus located in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Classes started in 1878. Th ...

Gawler Gawler is the oldest country town on the Australian mainland in the state of South Australia. It was named after the second Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia, George Gawler. It is about north of the ...

. Harvey is of Portuguese heritage, with his maternal family emigrating to Australia in 1966 from

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

. Harvey's father, Rob, was an aircraft technician in the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

. He is the eldest child of three. Harvey attended the

, obtaining a Bachelor of Science (Biomedical Science), a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a PhD in Microbiology. He has also been an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

umpire in the

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

and a piano teacher. As a postdoctoral research fellow, Harvey worked to find new ways to treat and prevent disease caused by the bacterial pathogen

Streptococcus pneumoniae ''Streptococcus pneumoniae'', or pneumococcus, is a Gram-positive, spherical bacteria, alpha-hemolytic (under aerobic conditions) or beta-hemolytic (under anaerobic conditions), aerotolerant anaerobic member of the genus Streptococcus. They are ...

, which is the world's leading cause of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

bacteraemia Bloodstream infections (BSIs), which include bacteremias when the infections are bacterial and fungemias when the infections are fungal, are infections present in the blood. Blood is normally a sterile environment, so the detection of micro ...

meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or ...

and

otitis media Otitis media is a group of inflammatory diseases of the middle ear. One of the two main types is acute otitis media (AOM), an infection of rapid onset that usually presents with ear pain. In young children this may result in pulling at the ear, ...

. He has published several times, including in Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

of the United States of America, ''

Scientific Reports ''Scientific Reports'' is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific mega journal published by Nature Portfolio, covering all areas of the natural sciences. The journal was established in 2011. The journal states that their aim is to assess solely th ...

'', ''

mBio ''mBio'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed open access scientific journal published by the American Society for Microbiology in association with the American Academy of Microbiology. It covers all aspects of the microbiological sciences, including vir ...

'' and ''

Infection and Immunity ''Infection and Immunity'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Society for Microbiology. It focuses on interactions between bacterial, fungal, or parasitic pathogens and their hosts. Areas covered include molecular pathogen ...

''.

Politics

Harvey joined the

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 ...

in June 2011, and volunteered for several campaigns and party activities. Harvey was pre-selected as the Liberal candidate for the

electoral district of Newland Newland is a single-member Electoral districts of South Australia, electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after pioneer Simpson Newland, a prominent figure in nineteenth-century South Australia. It is a 69.3&n ...

for the

2018 South Australian state election The 2018 South Australian state election to elect members to the 54th Parliament of South Australia was held on 17 March 2018. All 47 seats in the House of Assembly or lower house, whose members were elected at the 2014 election, and 11 of 22 se ...

in April 2017. At the 2018 state election, Harvey campaigned with a strong focus on

Modbury Hospital Modbury Hospital is a hospital that provides inpatient, outpatient and emergency services to a population of over 400,000 people living primarily in Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and ...

, ultimately defeating Labor MP

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 ...

, who had served as the Member for Newland since 2006. Harvey holds the electorate of Newland on approximately 0.1 percent margin, after the 2020 electoral redistribution. Upon his election, Harvey was appointed Deputy Government Whip in the

References

External links

Official Website
Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Living people Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of South Australia 21st-century Australian politicians 1985 births {{Australia-Liberal-politician-stub