Piccolo won Light at the 2006 election with a 52.1 percent two-party-preferred vote from a swing of 4.9 points against the incumbent Liberal member, Malcolm Buckby.

He'd previously run in 1985 and 1989, losing heavily both times to Liberal incumbent and former state opposition leader Bruce Eastick.

On paper, Light was Labor's most marginal seat, and would have been one of the first to be lost to the Liberals in the event of a uniform swing large enough to bring about a change of government.

Piccolo's victory was critical to allowing Labor to retain a bare majority of two seats even as it lost the two-party vote.

Light was redistributed significantly ahead of the 2014 election, but Piccolo retained the seat, again against the statewide trend with an unchanged two-party vote of 52.8 percent.