Entering in Parliament as member for Salisbury on 15 September 1979,[1] Arnold became a Minister after the election of the John Bannon Labor Government in 1982.
However, the change of leader did not appease the simmering voter anger against Labor ahead of a statutory general election due for 1993.
That resulted in the 11-year Labor government being swept out of office in a massive swing to the Liberal Party led by Dean Brown.
Arnold's resignation led to a by-election for Taylor on 5 November 1994, at which Trish White retained the seat for Labor.
In his doctoral thesis, he drew a number of conclusions that were based on the study of the language of Asturianu (also known as Bable), spoken in the northern Spanish province known as the Principau d’Asturies.
On 8 December 2007, the Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, the Most Revd Jeffrey Driver, announced Arnold's appointment as Chief Executive of Anglicare SA,[6] and he served in that role from 18 March 2008[7] to 30 June 2012.