Stephen Wade

Stephen Wade is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party of Australia member of the South Australian Legislative Council after an appointment in May 2006.

Wade was a ministerial adviser to former state minister Dr Michael Armitage before working in the water industry. Having decided to make a move into politics himself, he nominated for the party's Legislative Council ticket for the 2006 state election with the support of the party's moderate faction. It had been predicted that as a moderate he would only receive the distinctly unwinnable seventh position, but in an upset result, he instead won the at least potentially winnable fifth position. ref|seventh However, the party suffered a particularly bad defeat at the election, and the party was only able to win three seats.

Wade received a second chance soon after the election, however, when the Liberal Party opened nominations for a casual vacancy that had occurred prior to the election when former shadow minister Angus Redford resigned in order to make an unsuccessful bid to shift to the House of Assembly to contest the electoral district of Bright after Wayne Matthew resigned prior to the 2006 election. He emerged as the leading moderate contender for the position, challenging conservative Tim Keynes, who had occupied the fourth position on the ticket at the election and Joe Scalzi, a defeated Member of the House of Assembly. Keynes was widely seen as the favourite, particularly after the victory of conservative Cory Bernardi in a vote to fill a Senate vacancy in March, but in an upset result, Wade won 112-84-32 respectively in the first round of balloting, and 134-96 in the second. He was subsequently appointed to the vacancy on May 2, the first sitting day of the new parliament, and will serve out the remaining four years of Redford's term.

On 18 April 2007, Wade was appointed Shadow Minister for Correctional Services, Emergency Services, Road Safety and Assisting the Leader on State Strategic Plans. After a shadow cabinet reshuffle in early 2008 Wade was given additional responsibility as Shadow Minister for Disability Services

Notes and references

# Bildstien, Craig. "Randall's push for power goes off rails." "The Advertiser", July 2, 2005.