Background and early career
Tarzia attended St Joseph's School in the Adelaide suburb of Payneham and Rostrevor College,where he was head prefect and dux of the college. He began his first job at the age of 13,stacking shelves at a local Foodland supermarket. [4]
Tarzia obtained law and commerce degrees at the University of Adelaide,and became a solicitor,working in the funds management,legal and commercial sectors. [5]
Political career
Tarzia entered politics in 2010,becoming a councillor of the City of Norwood Payneham &St Peters,being elected first out of seven candidates and defeating two long-term incumbents.
In 2012,Tarzia was pre-selected by the South Australian Liberal Party to contest his local,north-eastern Adelaide seat of Hartley. [6] Tarzia won the seat at the 2014 state election,defeating the Labor incumbent Grace Portolesi. [5]
In January 2016 Tarzia was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Entrepreneurship,Innovation and Business Start-ups. [7] In January 2017,Tarzia became Shadow Cabinet Parliamentary Secretary. [8]
2018 election
On 6 October 2017,Nick Xenophon announced he would resign from the federal Senate and challenge Tarzia in Hartley at the 2018 state election. [9] A month after Xenophon's announcement,Tarzia's predecessor in the seat,Grace Portolesi,was announced as the Labor candidate,turning the forthcoming election into a three-way contest. Early polls in January 2018 predicted Xenophon would win Hartley, [10] with media articles naming Xenophon as the most influential person in South Australia.
Despite being written off by the media,Tarzia won three-way race and retained Hartley convincingly,with 57.8% of the vote and a 4.7% swing towards him,despite a state-wide swing of 1.1% away from the Liberal Party. [11] Tarzia's victory was key in helping the Liberals win government for the first time since 2002. [12]
On 3 May 2018,Tarzia was elected the 35th Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly,becoming the youngest person to hold the office in South Australian history. [13]
Speaker
In December 2018,Tarzia became the first Australian Speaker to allow question time in parliament to be broadcast live on Facebook. That decision sought to open up the South Australian Parliament to a bigger audience and was expected to increase the "openness and accountability" of the Parliament. [14]
Ministerial career
On 29 July 2020,Tarzia was appointed as Minister for Police,Emergency Services and Correctional Services,following a Cabinet reshuffle. [5] As a minister,Tarzia introduced a number of road safety reforms in South Australia.
After calls for motorcycle licensing reform, [15] Tarzia introduced the Motor Vehicles (Motor Bike Driver Licensing) Amendment Act 2021 into parliament which subsequently passed both houses on 3 March 2021. [16] These laws raised the minimum age for obtaining a motorcycle learners permit from 16 to 18,and obtaining a full licence from 18 to 21. [17]
On 1 July 2021,laws were introduced to further penalise hoon drivers. [18] Under the new law,South Australian drivers who have their car impounded have 38 days to pay their fine in full or face their vehicle being crushed or sold. Tarzia was quoted on ABC Radio asserting he has “no sympathy”for those who drive dangerously. [19]
In November 2021,legislation was introduced by Tarzia to target drugged drivers. Under the new laws,drivers would be stripped of their licence on the spot if they failed a roadside drug test. [20]
In November 2020,Tarzia and the State Government delivered a $800,000 funding boost to Crime Stoppers SA. The funding injection was the first direct State Government funding for the organisation. [21]
2022 election
At the 2022 South Australian election,Tarzia was re-elected for a third term as member for Hartley. While the South Australian Liberal Party had a two-party preferred swing against it of 6.52% in an election landslide, [22] Tarzia retained his seat with a swing against him of only 3%. [23] In April 2022,Tarzia assumed the shadow portfolios of Infrastructure and Transport and Recreation,Sport and Racing. [24]
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