Dennis Hood

Hood was born to working-class parents in Salisbury, Adelaide, South Australia; his father a Vietnam War veteran and his mother legally blind.[1] He holds a bachelor's degree in Arts (Politics) and Economics from the University of Adelaide, and subsequently became an executive for Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceuticals.

Hood became the federal director of Family First in 2005, and was selected as its primary candidate for the South Australian Legislative Council in the 2006 state election. He was elected with the assistance of preferences on a primary vote of 5%, becoming the party's second representative in state parliament's upper house. Family First and the other minor parties, share the balance of power in the Legislative Council. Although Hood tends to hold party lines, as distinct from the mandatory requirements of the Liberal Party and Labor Party, and more like the Greens, party members exhibit a unique flavor of policy, as evident by Hood sometimes operating independently from his colleague Brokenshire,[2] analogous to Bob Brown who described his own party as having "as many factions as there were candidates".[3] In July 2011, Hood wrote to The Advertiser complaining about what he claimed were factual errors and false assertions in an article about Family First.[4]

In 2009, Hood suggested the scrapping of compulsory voting, on the basis that he considers it is undemocratic to force people to cast a vote, despite the fact that South Australian electoral legislation only requires a voter to attend a polling booth, not to mark a ballot paper.[5] He also established a Parliamentary committee to evaluate the establishment of marine parks off the coast of South Australia, which involves the examination of the environment, economic and social impacts.[6] In 2011, Hood advocated the creation of a police task force to address the backlog of unexecuted arrest warrants.[7] Hood supported the redevelopment of the Adelaide Oval, with some amendments.[8] In 2010, Hood noted that the State Coroner needed more resources to address the backlog in cases.[9]

Hood has advocated increased accountability of government departments, describing the referral of SHine SA, a Government organization specializing in sexual health, of disabled clients to a list of prostitutes, was a "gross misuse of taxpayer money",[10] with then opposition leader Iain Evans concurring that a government-funded agency should never advocate what is technically an illegal activity. He has also raised concerns about the AIDS Council, and questioned Gail Gago on why the Government was funding an organization that demands job applicants use drugs and participate in prostitution as mandatory prerequisite for employment.[11] Earlier, Hood attacked the AIDS Council for stating "children are a blessing [because] you never know when you'll need someone to go out and score [drugs] for you", and that "alcohol is fun, but take drugs instead and you will remember your night out",[12] in what Christopher Pyne concurred as "foolish and irresponsible". Hood also voted not to provide Auditor-General Ken McPherson, who drafted the report into corruption and bullying at the Burnside Council, an extension of term, as he has already served 21 years.[13] Equally, Hood has encouraged the injection of capital into Government units that look after vulnerable people who are abused in state care.[14]

Hood is perceived to be antagonistic to the Greens, in such policies as providing the right to remove dangerous, sick and dying trees, which the Greens strongly opposed.[15] Hood endorsed weekly garbage collection, in a move the Greens disagreed with because it leads to increases in the amount of household rubbish going to landfill[16] Hood has also been a strong opponent of euthanasia legislation introduced by Steph Key[17] on the basis it fails to provide sufficient corroborative evidence of the desire for suicide apart from the killer as the sole witness,[18] and that the elderly and dying could be pressured into suicide if they felt they became a burden on their family,[19] essentially, that voluntary euthanasia, fortuitously, causes involuntary euthanasia.[20] He also raised the issue that the Greens, who oppose capital punishment, endorse euthanasia.[21] Hood has criticized the high abortion rate, in light of low fertility rates,[22] and has encouraged adoption in lieu.[23] Hood has rejected the scrapping of parliamentary prayer, saying the practice dates back to the establishment of the Westminster system,[24] and that the brief periods were useful for silent reflection. Hood has also rejected legislation to permit the cloning of human embryos,[25] on the basis new technology could create embryonic stem cells without using human embryos and eggs, thereby making the legislation unnecessary. Hood has opposed the decriminalisation of prostitution.[26] which he states is consistent with his Christian feminist position. Hood has also suggested plain-packaged DVD's for content that is restricted by law.[27] Despite being lampooned by the Chaser's War on Everything, in that it is necessary to have sexual intercourse to have families,[28] Hood denies he has spoken with the Australian Sex Party for a preference deal.[29] Hood has rejected the Greens call to name and shame religious schools which discriminate based on sexual orientation on their web site.[30] Although sometimes failing to block Green legislation, Hood has provided opposition rigor necessary to challenge status quo, including public consultation.[31] The Greens however, sometimes work cooperatively with Family First, for instance in Bob Brown's call for national changes to electoral legislation,[32] following the issue of counterfeit how-to-vote cards by the Labor Party that were passed off as Family First electoral material,[33] in what was also called "unethical, if not illegal" by opposition leader Isobel Redmond.[34] The antagonism was not evident in Hood and the Greens's advocacy of the Adelaide Oval redevelopment.[35] In fact, Parnell has voted in the same way as Hood on several occasions, against both the government and opposition.[36] Nevertheless, Hood has stated that he will never make a preference deal with the Greens,[37] as their core policies are irreconcilable with the positions of Family First.

Hood has called for a ban of nudist beaches, on the basis that children could inadvertently be exposed.[38] Hood has also rejected same-sex parenting on the basis that children of same-sex parents wouldn't gain the right to have heterosexual parents.[39] Hood has advocated mandatory parental consent for children getting a body piercing.[40] Hood has advocated for the permission to administer non-sexual smacking of children by their parents[41][42] Hood has recommended pragmatic child abuse checks by external agencies to address growing dismay relating to the Department of Community Services.[43] Despite saying that his party was comfortable with modest age-appropriate sexual education programs,[44] Hood has remained staunchly opposed to the sex education of primary school kids.[45] In a similar manner, Hood has supported the call of independent MP Bob Such, who has advocated the introduction of a religious education program focusing on compassion, respect and knowledge of various religions.[46] Hood has also recommended a review of the classification system, and that some content classified general should be upward classified, as evident in the comical but paradoxical newshed "G-rated g-string"[47] Hood has also been vocal about the failure of the Advertising Standards Board to properly screen out material of poor taste, including a liquor advertisement with the buttocks of three adult males exposed nude, in what the RAA concurred is a distraction to driving.[48] Hood has worked with Attorney-General John Rau on a number of bills, including the outlawing of minors from practicing scarification.[49]

Hood has established a reputation for being tough on crime, in particular drugs,[50] suggesting tougher controls on the growing and possession of cannabis, on the basis that possession of commercial quantities ($40,000) would only attract a small (maximum of $500) fine, and provided insufficient disincentive.[51] He has also requested on-the-spot fine for users of heroin, meth-amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy.[52] He has opposed the use of drug driving[53] and drugs in public, saying it is a threat to the welfare of residents and businesses, as well as to the individual themselves.[54] He introduced law to increase police powers to seize a convicted child molester's computer at any time without a court order to examine its contents,[55] essentially shifting the burden of proof and replacing it with a reasonable cause to suspect that a sex crime is taking place. Despite Labor has personified itself as "tough on drugs", Hood has stated figures show otherwise, and has instead established himself as the authority on crime.[56] Apart from increased fines, Hood has also suggested pragmatic drug testing devices at hotels and nightclubs.[57] Hood recommended and successfully passed laws to adopt this stance by setting minimum,[58] as opposed to maximum sentences, which are never implemented by judges.[59] Hood has rejected even the prescription of marijuana for medicinal purposes, backed by Vickie Chapman, saying the harm outweighs the therapeutic benefits.[60] Perhaps the most fanciful recommendation is the introduction of an online database to record the details of the acquisition and sales of products containing pseudoephedrine, which using data mining technologies could help identify suspicious buyers, in a move which Commissioner of SAPOL, Mal Hyde, agreed with.[61] Hood was also authority on reducing sexual assaults in taxis,[62] his colleague Rob Brokenshire the chairman of the select committee.

At a Family First State Executive meeting on 1 February 2007, Hood replaced Andrew Evans as the Family First parliamentary leader.[63] Although failing to gain the reputation as a serial Freedom of Information Act user as colleague Robert Brokenshire,[64] Hood has been an active user of the FOI too,[65][66] but has a better reputation for the publication of public records.[67][68] Nevertheless, Hood is established as the mathematical identity of Family First, involved with the compilation of econometric statistics.[69]

Hood called for District Court Judge Marie Shaw to be sacked as a result of failing to impose a sentence upon a series of twelve sex offenders she had presided over.[70] To prevent Shaw from taking him to the Supreme Court for defamation over his naming her as "South Australia's softest judge",[71] in what Shaw described to cause her to become "distressed and humiliated", "subject to ridicule and contempt",[72] Hood settled with her by pronouncing an apology.[73] Chief Justice John Doyle sided with Shaw, saying that judges shouldn't be held personally responsible for their decisions,[74] that much decisions were the inevitable result of precedence, although Judge Shaw eventually resigned just four years after sitting on the bench,[75] despite the principle of tenure, that she could have sat on the bench until she turned 70. Hood's interest in the courts isn't singular, exhibiting particulate interest in the high judicial salaries and pensions that were "out of step with" community expectations, with salaries $540,000 a year, and retired pensions at $114,534 a year.[76] Hood is also a fond judicial activist, in particular precedence by way of ratio decidendi to change "pathetic" sentences for "very serious crimes", ranging from rape[77] to arson,[78] and increase rights for the disabled, including the blind.[79]

Following the 2010 election, although Hood's identity has been outweighed by colleague Robert Brokenshire, dubbed the "de facto opposition leader",[80] Hood has worked with independents Ann Bressington (the Nick Xenophon No Pokies Party) and John Darley, in attempts to improve funding for mental health, disability, child protection and public housing.[81] His work with Bressington, whose 22-year-old daughter Shay-Louise Bressington died from heroin overdose, in the area of "tough on drugs" is landmark.[82] Bressington however, is positioned as even tougher on drugs, or at least quintuply economically.[83] Hood's proposal draft bill that will allow parents to become better informed of their children's Facebook activity,[84] was accepted by John Rau and Robert McClelland.[85]

Hood followed Brokenshire to the Australian Conservatives, led by South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi, after Family First merged into the Conservatives in 2017. However, Hood defected to the Liberal Party nine days after the 2018 state election. Hood noted that the Conservatives had only garnered three percent of first preference votes for the House of Assembly, with none of their 33 lower house candidates coming close to being elected. He claimed that the Conservatives were focused almost entirely on federal issues, and were likely to have "no impact" at the state level. At the same time, he praised the vision of the newly elected Liberal government, saying that there was a "substantial" overlap with his own platform.[86] Reportedly, Brokenshire had encouraged Hood to consider defecting to the Liberals. When Bernardi learned of Hood's defection, he suspected that the Conservatives had been "white-anted from within."[87]

Dennis Hood was elected to the South Australian Parliament at the age of 34, and was described by Peter Goers as "one of the youngest pollies in State Parliament".[88] In 2006, Hood's wife Lisa Hood gave birth to his daughter, Madeline Hood, and said his good experience with the Women's and Children's Hospital was "fantastic" and "outstanding", and that he couldn't comprehend why people "whinged" about the system.[89] He has been a comical conservative voice in South Australia, with such descriptions of the banning of the words "ho ho ho" during Christmas as "plain madness" as the word "ho" could be misconstrued as "whore", in what a University of South Australia communications senior lecturer concurred as being "nonsense".[90]

Dennis plays the acoustic and electric guitar, is a fan of the Adelaide Crows[91] and loves sports cars,[92] and has been a dissenter on Government policy to crush hoons on the basis of waste.

Hood's parents were apathetic toward religion but he converted to Christianity at 19. Hood attends Rostrevor Baptist Church in Adelaide.[93] When Sunday Mail columnist Peter Goers stated in a critical editorial that Hood was a young earth creationist, Goers (a staunch atheist) and Hood have a comical relationship, the most famous accolade being Goers reporting Hood looks like he "walked out of a men's fashion magazine" sporting an expensive cotton pullover and suit,[94] and Hood responding in his column that the "expensive" clothing was obtained from a Salvation Army store. An avid philanthropist, Hood rejected an automatic 6.7% pay rise, and gave it to charity.[95]

• Parliamentary profile: SA Parliament website
• Family First Party: Dennis Hood
• Dennis Hood on Twitter