Darren Leicester Cheeseman (born 8 June 1976) is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the states and territories of Australia, state lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the state upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament H ...

since November 2018, representing the seat of South Barwon. He previously held the federal seat of Corangamite from

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

.Whalley, Jeff
Ballarat man Darren Cheeseman breaks 70-year hoodoo in Corangamite
, 26 November 2007, Geelong Advertiser Cheeseman was born in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand. He grew up in

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

and attended

Mount Clear College Mount Clear College, formerly known as Mount Clear Secondary College and Mount Clear Technical High School, is a public high school in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It was established after two secondary colleges, Ballarat Boys' Technical School ...

. He later studied for a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geology at the University of Ballarat. He worked for the Association for the Blind, and during that time also served as a councillor for the City of Ballarat. He later worked for the Community and Public Sector Union. In 2006, Cheeseman contested Labor preselection for Corangamite against the Labor candidate at the 2004 election, former

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

mayor Peter McMullin. Having secured preselection, he went on to defeat long-time Liberal incumbent Stewart McArthur with a 6.6% swing. McArthur had held the seat since 1984. Cheeseman attributed his win to opposition to WorkChoices, the Liberal government's industrial relations laws. Cheeseman was only the third Labor member ever to win Corangamite, and the first since 1929. He narrowly held Corangamite at the 2010 election, against Liberal candidate Sarah Henderson, becoming the first Labor member to win a second term in the seat. However, he was defeated by Henderson at the 2013 federal election. In 2018, Cheeseman was elected to the

as the Labor member for South Barwon. in 2022, Cheeseman was re-elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the Labor Member for South Barwon. In 2024, Cheeseman was forced to resign from the Parliamentary Labor Party after allegations that he had harassed a staffer.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheeseman, Darren 1976 births Living people New Zealand emigrants to Australia People who lost New Zealand citizenship Naturalised citizens of Australia Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Corangamite Politicians from Ballarat Federation University Australia alumni Politicians from Christchurch Australian trade unionists Labor Left politicians Australian MPs 2007–2010 Australian MPs 2010–2013