David Julian Fawcett (born 23 October 1963) is an Australian Liberal Party politician who has been a Senator for South Australia since 2011. Fawcett served in the Morrison government as Assistant Minister for Defence from 2018 to 2019.
Prior to the 2004 election, the seat of Wakefield had been dramatically altered in a redistribution. The seat had long been a safe rural Liberal seat stretching from the Yorke Peninsula through to the Riverland and the state's border, but upon the abolition of the safe metropolitan Labor seat of Bonython, Wakefield was moved to take in the outer northern Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth and part of Salisbury, spanning through to the rural mid-north town of Clare—roughly a fifth the size of its former incarnation. The Liberals held the old Wakefield with a comfortably safe two-party margin of 14.6 points, but the new Wakefield was notionally a marginal Labor seat with a two-party margin of just 1.3 points. The previous Liberal member, Neil Andrew, believed this made Wakefield unwinnable and opted not to recontest the seat in 2004. However, Fawcett narrowly defeated the Labor candidate, ex-Bonython MP Martyn Evans, on a swing of 2.2 points, taking the seat on Family First preferences. Despite an extensive campaign at the 2007 election, Fawcett was defeated by Labor's Nick Champion, suffering a large swing of 7.2 points.
Fawcett was elected as a Liberal Senator in South Australia at the 2010 election and assumed his seat on 1 July 2011.[6][7]
He served as deputy Government whip in 2014-2016, then from 2016 to 2022.[8][9] Fawcett has served extensively in Parliamentary committees, chairing Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade while in government, then as Deputy Chair while in opposition.
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