Darren Leicester Cheeseman (born 8 June 1976), Australian politician, was the successful Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 candidate for the federal seat of Corangamite

Division of Corangamite

The Division of Corangamite is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election...

 at the federal of election of 24 November 2007

Australian legislative election, 2007

Federal elections for the Parliament of Australia were held on Saturday 24 November 2007 after a 39 day campaign, in which 13.6 million Australians were enrolled to vote...

.

Cheeseman was born in Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, New Zealand. He grew up in Ballarat

Ballarat, Victoria

Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...

 and attended Mount Clear Secondary College. He later studied for a Bachelor of Applied Science Geology at the University of Ballarat

University of Ballarat

The University of Ballarat is a dual-sector university in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It was formed by the passage of an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1994, from the Ballarat College of Advanced Education...

. He worked for the Association for the Blind, and during that time also served as a Councillor for the City of Ballarat. Later he worked for the Community and Public Sector Union

Community and Public Sector Union

The Community and Public Sector Union is a national trade union in Australia.- History of The CPSU :...

.

In 2006 Cheeseman contested Labor preselection for Corangamite against the Labor candidate in 2004, former Geelong mayor Peter McMullin

Peter McMullin

Peter McMullin was the Mayor of Geelong in 2006 and Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne between 1996 and 1999. McMullin served as a Councillor of the City of Geelong since 2004 and served as a Councillor of the City of Melbourne from 1996 to 1999...

. Having secured preselection, he went on to win the seat with a 6.6% swing. McArthur had held the seat since 1984. Cheeseman attributed his win to opposition to the Liberal government's industrial relations laws, WorkChoices

WorkChoices

The Workplace Relations Act 1996, as amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, popularly known as Work Choices, was a Legislative Act of the Australian Parliament that came into effect in March 2006 which involved many controversial amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, the...

. Labor had not won Corangamite since 1929.

Mr. Cheeseman and his wife, Kirsty, live in the Surf Coast town of Torquay with their young son Isaac.

External links