David Southwick

David James Southwick (born 31 March 1968) is an Australian Liberal politician, and has been the member for Caulfield in the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2010. Southwick has been the Parliamentary Secretary for Police and Emergency Services. He has also held positions of Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment, Shadow Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Shadow Minister for Major Projects and Shadow Minister for Cost of Living. As of 2025, Southwick is the Shadow Minister for Police and Corrections, Shadow Minister for Youth and Future Leaders and Shadow Minister for Youth Justice. From 7 September 2021 until 27 December 2024, Southwick was the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in Victoria.

Early life

Southwick was born in Caulfield, one of three children born to Beryl and Stuart Southwick. His father ran a soap business in Laverton and served on the Werribee City Council for nearly 30 years.

Southwick completed his high school certificate at Caulfield Grammar and studied a Bachelor of Business at Victoria University, later pursuing a postgraduate study at the Monash University Caulfield campus.

Business career

While at university Southwick started his business career including being founding and serving as managing director of The Body Collection. In this business, he employed 50 staff.

Southwick also worked as a lecturer at both Victoria University and RMIT. He served as RMIT's first Entrepreneur in Residence in 2003.

He has previously the Chair of the Ardoch Youth Foundation.

Political career

Southwick was the unsuccessful Liberal candidate for the Division of Melbourne Ports in the 2004 federal election, achieving a swing of almost 2 points against the incumbent MP Michael Danby. In the 2006 state election he was a Liberal candidate for the Southern Metropolitan Region, but did not win election.

Southwick was elected as the member for Caulfield in 2010.

In November 2012, it was revealed that Southwick had provided misleading information on his website, claiming to have been an 'Adjunct Professor' at RMIT, and having a graduate diploma in marketing from Monash University, despite being several units short. Both universities stated that Southwick had never obtained the qualifications referred to. The information was subsequently removed from his website. Southwick responded to the claims by saying that 'Adjunct Professor' was a title used to refer to him while undertaking teaching overseas on behalf of the RMIT Graduate School of Business in Hong Kong, when he was an Adjunct Lecturer.

In April 2013, Southwick was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Police and Emergency Services.

After the defeat of the Napthine Government in November 2014, Southwick was appointed Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources, Shadow Minister for Renewables, and Shadow Minister for Innovation.

In December 2018, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Police; Community Safety; and Corrections with his portfolio expanding to include Shadow Minister for Crime Prevention and Youth Justice in March 2021.

In September 2021, Southwick was elected deputy leader of the state Liberal Party and held this position until the 2024 Victorian Liberal Party leadership spill.

Policy positions

In a 2015 conscience vote, Southwick was one of just 13 lower house MPs to vote against the creation of safe access zones outside abortion clinics. He was praised for this decision by the anti-abortion group Right to Life Australia

In a 2018 conscience vote, Southwick voted against the legalisation of voluntary assisted dying.

During the 2018 Victorian state election, Southwick opposed the Safe Schools anti-bullying program, claiming “really young children rebeing exposed to sexual education”. In 2019, Southwick voted against a bill that would allow transgender people to change their gender on their birth certificate.

In 2020, Southwick was critical of the Victorian Department of Education for antisemitic and anti-Israeli bullying in a Melbourne school, accusing the Department of “systemic failings”.

Southwick criticised the government for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that mismanagement of hotel quarantine caused the death of 800 Victorians.

On 10 November 2022, during the 2022 Victorian state election campaign, Southwick was caught using two campaign staffers in campaign ads without disclosing they were his paid employees. Opposition leader Matthew Guy endorsed the dishonest advertising, downplaying the use of paid staffers in the ads by endorsing Southwick and stating that "it was not misleading", regardless of the lack of a disclaimer.

Personal life

Southwick is of Polish-Jewish and Hungarian-Jewish heritage.

As of March 2025, Southwick had an interest in 16 properties, including his primary home, receiving rental income from five of them. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/landlord-liberal-mp-david-southwick-says-were-all-broke-despite-major-property-portfolio/news-story/f78ef6707dd65fbba6d563a74c68c9a2?amp

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Southwick, David
1968 births
Living people
Politicians from Melbourne
Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Monash University alumni
Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria
Victoria University, Melbourne alumni
People who fabricated academic degrees
Jewish Australian politicians
21st-century Australian politicians
People from Caulfield, Victoria
People educated at Mount Scopus Memorial College