Frances Bedford

Frances Ellen Bedford (born 5 November 1953) is an Australian politician who represented the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Florey from 1997 state election until 2022, first for the Labor Party and from 2017 as an independent.

Early life

Bedford was born in Sydney and moved to Melbourne and then Adelaide after the death of her mother. She became involved in politics and became an electorate officer for former Labor MP Peter Duncan.

Parliament

Bedford was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Florey at the 1997 state election for the Labor Party, defeating incumbent Sam Bass with 51% of the two-party-preferred (2PP) vote; in addition to the 1997 election win, Bedford also contested and won the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 elections as the Labor candidate.

At the 2018 state election, she successfully ran as an independent candidate, winning 56.1% of the 2PP vote. Bedford's 2018 electoral victory was following her resignation from the Labor Party in March 2017 following Labor's preselection of Jack Snelling as a result of the major electoral redistribution which moved two-thirds of Snelling's Playford electoral voters into Florey; at the time of her resignation, Bedford argued that Labor's ‘faceless men’ had removed the ability for any non-faction-aligned Labor Members from being able to win preselection in the party and that they had effectively attempted to end her career via “hostile takeover”.

Following her departure from the Labor Party, Bedford, as with the rest of the crossbench, continued to provide confidence and supply support to the minority Labor government. A ReachTEL poll conducted on 2 March 2017 of 606 voters in post-redistribution Florey indicated a 33.4 percent primary vote for Bedford running as an independent which would likely see the endorsed Labor candidate defeated after preferences. In December 2017, Snelling decided not to nominate for Florey, and was replaced as Labor's endorsed candidate by Rik Morris. Bedford successfully re-contested Florey as an independent at the 2018 state election, gaining a 30.6 percent first preference vote and defeating Morris on preferences.

In October 2021, Bedford announced she would move to contest the seat of Newland at the 2022 state election. She justified the move citing electoral boundary changes pushing much of her constituents into the Newland electorate for the 2022 state election. She placed third, gaining 12% of the vote, and was defeated.

During Bedford's time in Parliament, she contributed to the House of Assembly Chamber 645 times (Motions, Bills, Speeches etc.) with 82 Contributions to Legislation (Second Readings etc.), 10 Private Bills, 3 Private Bills Passed the Parliament, 395 Grievance Debate (Motions) Speeches, and 15 Addresses in Reply speeches.

Deputy Speaker (2014-2018)

During the final term of the Weatherill Labor Government (2014–2018), Bedford was unanimously appointed as the 43rd Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees by the Parliament, with the former Labor Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, being appointed Speaker. However, in practice, Bedford was the ''de facto'' speaker, with Atkinson generally only taking the chair during opening prayers and Question Time.

Constitutional Reform

Bedford introduced ten pieces of legislation into the Parliament during her 25-year parliamentary career with three passing into law. Two significant pieces of Bedford legislation which are now law include significant constitutional and parliamentary reform:

The ''Parliamentary Committees (Petitions) Amendment Act 2019'' made changes to state laws to allow eligible petitions by 10,000 or more signatories to be automatically referred to the state Parliament's Legislative Review Committee, who are then required to perform an inquiry, consider the petition and make an inquiry report which is tabled in the Parliament, and referred to the relevant Minister, who is then required to address the house within six sitting days on behalf of the government identifying actions to be taken concerning the matter referred into the petition.

The ''Constitution (Independent Speaker) Amendment Act 2021'' made changes to the state's Constitution to ensure that the Parliament's Speaker was an independent or non-political party-affiliated Member of Parliament, with Bedford arguing that “Parliament must be free of any political influence, perceived or otherwise, and be beyond reproach and a beacon of best practice as it weighs and deliberates laws and amendments to legislation to present the best possible outcomes for the people of South Australia”. The law passed the Parliament with a majority of two after Bedford secured the full support of the Labor opposition and her three independent crossbench colleagues. At the time of the law's passing, there was already an independent speaker ( Cregan) who continued as speaker for the remainder of the Parliament.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedford, Frances
1953 births
Living people
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia
Independent members of the Parliament of South Australia
Members of the South Australian House of Assembly
21st-century Australian politicians
21st-century Australian women politicians
Women members of the South Australian House of Assembly