Les Twentyman

Leslie Jack "Les" Twentyman AO is a youth worker and charity fundraiser based in Port Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia. [ [http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/celebrity-chef-may-run-in-state-election/2006/01/30/1138590443354.html Celebrity chef may run in state election - National - theage.com.au ] ] . Raised in Braybrook, he was a well known Victorian charity promoter, on issues ranging from homelessness, drug abuse, prison reform and social welfare.

He works for an organisation called Open Family [ [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/lm/stories/s1319058.htm Life Matters: 9 March 2005 - Beyond Macquarie Fields #2: Les Twentyman ] ] which helps street-children and runs a youth refuge house in Victoria which houses 200 young people a year.

He was awarded the Order of Australia in 1994, and was a finalist for Australian of the Year in 2004.

He has been an independent candidate for the Victorian Legislative Council in 1992 and 1996. He also stood in the 2008 Kororoit by-election for the Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Kororoit on June 28, 2008, coming second to Labor after the distribution of preferences. His campaign had been supported by the Electrical Trades Union and also by former independent MP Phil Cleary. There was a minor controversy during the campaign involving his admission that while visiting a California strip club that he removed all his clothing except for his underpants and proceeded to pole dance before being ejected by bouncers. [ [http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23882414-2862,00.html Twentyman stripper antics] ]

After that controversy which was said to cost him preferences from the Family First aligned candidate, Twentyman was attacked by his foes including the Labor Party and right-wing political blogger Andrew Landeryou with allegations that he supported heroin injecting rooms (he had but during the campaign said he now opposed them), consorted with terrorists (he was photographed in his autobiography with several IRA officials but it was a one-off meeting) and lived in luxury in a waterfront mansion by the Maribyrnong river (he shared a house near Footscray with his wife).

Twentyman complained that both Labor and Landeryou had unfairly criticised him, something many in the media agreed with. Twentyman applied for an intervention order to stop Landeryou reporting on him but later withdrew his application.

He wrote an autobiography, "The Les Twentyman Story", which was published by Hardie Grant in 2000. The book revealed that Twentyman met with members of the Irish Republican Army and had been arrested for public drunkenness.

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