David James Southwick was born on 31 March 1968 and is an Australian Liberal politician, and has been the member for Caulfield in the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2010.
18 Facts About David Southwick
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David Southwick has held positions of Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment, Shadow Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Shadow Minister for Major Projects and Shadow Minister for Cost of Living.
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From 7 September 2021 until 27 December 2024, David Southwick was the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in Victoria.
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David Southwick was born in Caulfield, one of three children born to Beryl and Stuart David Southwick.
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David Southwick's father ran a soap business in Laverton and served on the Werribee City Council for nearly 30 years.
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David Southwick worked as a lecturer at both Victoria University and RMIT.
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David Southwick served as RMIT's first Entrepreneur in Residence in 2003.
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David Southwick has previously the Chair of the Ardoch Youth Foundation.
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David Southwick was the unsuccessful Liberal candidate for the Division of Melbourne Ports in the 2004 federal election, achieving a swing of almost 2 points against the incumbent MP Michael Danby.
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David Southwick was elected as the member for Caulfield in 2010.
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In November 2012, it was revealed that David Southwick had provided misleading information on his website, claiming to have been an 'Adjunct Professor' at RMIT, and having a graduate diploma in marketing from Monash University, despite being several units short.
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David Southwick responded to the claims by saying that 'Adjunct Professor' was a title used to refer to him while undertaking teaching overseas on behalf of the RMIT Graduate School of Business in Hong Kong, when he was an Adjunct Lecturer.
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In September 2021, David Southwick was elected deputy leader of the state Liberal Party and held this position until the 2024 Victorian Liberal Party leadership spill.
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David Southwick was praised for this decision by the anti-abortion group Right to Life Australia.
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In 2019, David Southwick voted against a bill that would allow transgender people to change their gender on their birth certificate.
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David Southwick criticised the government for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that mismanagement of hotel quarantine caused the death of 800 Victorians.
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On 10 November 2022, during the 2022 Victorian state election campaign, David Southwick was caught using two campaign staffers in campaign ads without disclosing they were his paid employees.
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Opposition leader Matthew Guy endorsed the dishonest advertising, downplaying the use of paid staffers in the ads by endorsing David Southwick and stating that "it was not misleading", regardless of the lack of a disclaimer.