28 Facts About Steve Fielding

Steve Fielding was elected to the upper house at the 2004 federal election on two per cent of the first-preference votes.

Steve Fielding failed to gain re-election at the 2010 federal election.

Academically, Steve Fielding suffered setbacks through an undiagnosed case of dyslexia, and this led to problems studying subjects such as English.

Steve Fielding returned to university to undertake a Master of Business Administration at Monash University, completing it in 1992.

Steve Fielding later moved to Wellington, New Zealand, where he worked for Telecom New Zealand in "change management" during a difficult time for the industry, as it was undergoing deregulation.

Steve Fielding 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.

Steve Fielding entered politics in 2003 when he successfully stood as an independent candidate for the Knox City Council.

Steve Fielding was elected to represent Victoria in the Senate at the 2004 federal election.

Steve Fielding was the first representative of Family First to be elected to the Federal Parliament.

The Australian Democrats and the Labor Party agreed to swap preferences with Family First, but Steve Fielding benefited from the larger-than-expected surplus of Liberal preferences.

Steve Fielding 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.

Steve Fielding's vote ensured the passage of Voluntary student unionism, the overturning of civil unions legislation in the Australian Capital Territory, and changes to media ownership laws.

In mid-2009, Steve Fielding flew to the US on a self-funded trip to discover more about climate change.

Steve Fielding came back unconvinced that man-made carbon dioxide emissions were the main driver of climate change.

Steve Fielding subsequently voted against the Rudd government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

In 2009 Steve Fielding teamed up with the coalition to defeat the government's proposed changes to the youth allowance system.

Steve Fielding said the changes were unfair to rural and regional students and that it would leave 26,000 students worse off.

Steve Fielding argued that taxing ready to drink alcohol beverages wouldn't put an end to binge drinking.

Steve Fielding campaigned for the government to act against the practice.

An increase to the luxury car tax was defeated in the Senate on 4 September 2008, with Steve Fielding joining the coalition in blocking the budget legislation.

In early 2008, Steve Fielding reportedly considered breaking away from Family First to establish a new political party, inviting Tim Costello and other "big names" to join him.

The revelations came after Steve Fielding changed his position on abortion, after being rebuffed by his party for taking a softer approach.

Steve Fielding gave conditional support to the mandatory ISP level filtering scheme.

In June 2010, during the Senate discussion on the proposed Paid Parental Leave Scheme, Steve Fielding suggested "some women may rort the scheme by deliberately falling pregnant and then having a late-term abortion".

Steve Fielding was criticised by all sides of Australian politics for these comments.

Steve Fielding dressed as a giant beer bottle to promote Family First's proposed policy to introduce a bottle return scheme.

Steve Fielding is a Christian and attends CityLife Church, a large Pentecostal church in Melbourne.

Steve Fielding rejects evolution and has publicly espoused his belief in Young Earth creationism.