CHATTING with Tony Piccolo in his Murray Street electorate office in Gawler, we intermittently pause as passers-by tap on the big, glass windows to stop and talk to the local MP.
As member for Light for the past 13 years – which will extend to 14 in March, making him the second-longest serving MP for the seat behind Dr Bruce Eastick – Mr Piccolo said he’s always offered an ‘open door’ to his constituents, and in the short 20 minutes we spent together a few people took him up on that offer.
The personable approach is one of the reasons why the long-serving Laborite has enjoyed much of his lifetime in public office.
It has been 40 years since Mr Piccolo’s journey into politics began, when as a 19-year-old student he visited member for Napier Terry Hemmings, in 1979, and joined the Labor Party.
“I remember going up to his office on the first floor in Elizabeth…and his secretary was there, she welcomed me there and called Terry out,” he recalled.
“I said ‘I want to join the Party’, and he came out and joined me up.”
Born into a working-class Italian home, to parents Raffaele and Maria, Mr Piccolo and his family, including older sister Antoinetta, immigrated to Australia in 1963 and settled in Kudla.
However, it was a story his late father once told him that still stands out over four decades later as one of the reasons he subscribed to the Labor movement.
“He was the last child of five, and as a child in those days – this is going back to the 1930s in Italy – he worked for the family, but also had to work on other people’s properties to turn an income for the family,” Mr Piccolo said.
“He used to tell me stories about how he was beaten by the landowners to work harder.
“And so, those sort of stories, and my parents’ background – my dad worked at Holden – the Labor Party was a natural fit for me in terms of my upbringing.”
Since joining Labor, Mr Piccolo has spent the majority of his life in public office.
In 1981, he was elected to the then District Council of Munno Para as a councillor, before winning a spot on Gawler Council as an alderman four years later.
In the year 2000, after 19 years as a councillor, Mr Piccolo was elected mayor of
Gawler – a position he held for two terms – before being voted in as member for Light in 2006, replacing long-serving Liberal MP Malcolm Buckby.
Being an elected member of parliament is demanding of his time – Mr Piccolo’s average working week spans “60-70 hours, sometimes more” – but he said it’s just the “nature of the job”.
“I think the more people know about you, the more they trust you and the more they want to engage with you,” Mr Piccolo said.
“Those sort of things are wonderful…you get to know your community better, and people better.”
With around nine years still to go until he supersedes Dr Eastick as the longest-serving Light MP, whether he gets there, Mr Piccolo said, will be determined by “good health…
and people have to vote for me”.
“If either one of those doesn’t work out, then I’ll have to move on,” he said, with a grin.
“But I hope I can move on before the community tells me to move on, that’s always
been my ambition.”
While he hasn’t much considered life after politics, Mr Piccolo said he’ll likely involve himself in the community in a voluntary role, or pursue further study in the areas of theology or history, when the time comes.
“I’m not a galoshes and white picket fence guy – I’m going to be out there doing something,” he said.
