Steven Fielding (born 17 October 1960) is a former Australian senator for the state of Victoria and the former federal parliamentary leader of the Family First Party.
[6] Academically, Fielding suffered setbacks through an undiagnosed case of dyslexia, and this led to problems studying subjects such as English.
[6][9] He returned to Australia three years later, in 1995, and worked for United Energy, the Australian Yellow Pages and as a marketing manager at Vision Super.
[5] He has described the decision to stand as "very last-minute", but others, such as then-Knox mayor Jenny Moore and then-Victorian Labor MP Peter Lockwood said Fielding was very open about his intent to move into federal politics.
[5] Both Lockwood and Labor MP Bob Stensholt described how Fielding later made inquiries about the possibility of running for one of the major parties, before eventually joining Family First in 2004.
He was able to stay in the count long enough to receive Democrat and Labor preferences, defeating Greens candidate David Risstrom for the last Senate place in Victoria.
[1] While Family First is generally regarded as a conservative party, Fielding stated he would not be an automatic supporter of the then Coalition opposition in the Senate.
In February 2009, he told a Senate hearing that he believed divorce added to the impact of global warming because it resulted in people switching to a "resource-inefficient lifestyle".
[15] Conversely, his intention to vote "no" ensured the defeat of the Howard government's proposed tightening of asylum seeker laws.
[20] At the end of his campaign in support of the Howard government's Voluntary Student Unionism legislation, which was passed, the walls of Fielding's office were vandalised with pro-union graffiti.
[13] An increase to the luxury car tax was defeated in the Senate on 4 September 2008, with Fielding joining the coalition in blocking the budget legislation.
[21] In early 2008, Fielding reportedly considered breaking away from Family First to establish a new political party, inviting Tim Costello and other "big names" to join him.