Leon William Kennedy Bignell (born 1966), Australian politician, is the member for

Mawson Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader durin ...

representing the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party since the 2006 election.

Background

Bignell was a high-profile

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

sports reporter and later a media adviser to Pat Conlon.

Political career

Bignell finished ahead of incumbent

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

Robert Brokenshire Robert Lawrence Brokenshire (born 1957) is a South Australian dairy farmer and former member of the South Australian Parliament. He represented the Australian Conservatives from 26 April 2017 to election defeat in 2018, and Family First Party ...

with a 52.2 percent two party preferred vote at the 2006 state election, delivering Mawson to Labor for the first time since it was lost in the 1993 election landslide. He increased his two-party-preferred vote to 54.4 percent at the 2010 election, bucking not only the statewide trend, but decades of voting patterns in the seat. Mawson was Labor's second most marginal seat, and on paper it should have been among the first to be lost to the Liberals in the event of a uniform swing large enough to topple Labor from office. Bignell's victory was critical in allowing Labor to eke out a narrow two-seat majority. Bignell increased his majority to 55.6 percent at the 2014 election, again against the statewide trend. The 2016 draft redistribution ahead of the 2018 election proposed to redistribute Bignell's seat of

from a 5.6 percent Labor seat to a notional 2.6 percent Liberal seat, taking in areas down the coast as well as

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

. Bignell is affectionately known as "Biggles" in media circles, and was once caught drawing caricatures of his opposition colleagues while in the chamber. Bignell was engaged to Labor colleague and former member for Bright

Chloë Fox Chloë Catienne Fox (born 22 February 1971) is an Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Bright from 2006 to 2014 for the Labor Party. Personal life Fox is the daughter of Australian children's auth ...

between March 2006 and March 2007. Bignell entered cabinet in January 2013 as the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport and Minister for Racing in the Weatherill Labor cabinet until the 2018 state election. He is aligned with Labor's left faction.

References

External links

*
Parliamentary Profile: SA Labor website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bignell, Leon 1966 births Living people Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia Labor Left politicians 21st-century Australian politicians