Dennis Garry Edward Hood (born 12 January 1970) is an Australian politician who began his political career as a member of the South Australian Legislative Council in 2006 on the Family First Party's ticket. In 2017, Family First merged into the Australian Conservatives and Hood joined the Liberal Party after the 2018 state election. Early life and career Dennis Hood was born in Woodside, South Australia, Australia and raised in Salisbury. In Hood's youth, his father held three jobs and his mother, who is blind, worked as a meat packer. Hood holds a Bachelor of Economics with honours in politics and philosophy and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from the University of Adelaide. Career Prior to working in politics, Hood worked in pharmaceuticals as a financial executive for Johnson & Johnson. He became the Federal Director for the Family First Party in 2005 and ran for the South Australian Legislative Council the following year as their primary candidate. He was elected to the upper house in 2006 and, in February 2007, replaced Andrew Evans as the Family First Party's parliamentary leader. At this time, he was also serving as the party's treasurer and was a member of the Social Development Committee. He was reelected in 2014 still on the Family First ticket but followed Robert Brokenshire to the Australian Conservatives when the two parties merged in 2017. Nine days after the 2018 state election, Hood defected to the Liberal Party following the Conservatives' extreme defeat, a move he was roundly criticised for. He claimed that the Liberal Party's platform overlapped significantly with his, while the Conservatives were too focused on federal issues and were likely to have "no impact" at the state level. Between 2020 and 2022, he was a government whip. In 2016, he was Chair of the Committee of the South Australian Parliament and Member of the Legislative Council. In April 2020, he served on the South Australian Parliament's COVID-19 Response Committee. Hood generally subscribes to Keynesian economics. Political stances Crime In 2014, Hood argued that the government overregulates people and that, while it has its purposes, it has become too large. In a similar vein, he suggested the removal of compulsory voting in 2009, claiming it undemocratic to force people to cast a vote. In 2008, he unsuccessfully pushed for stricter sentences for criminals' second offences. In 2013, he said that while "rehabilitation is a goal