Connie Bonaros

Constadina Bonaros is an Australian politician. A former advisor to Nick Xenophon, she was elected as an SA-Best member of the South Australian Legislative Council at the 2018 state election.^[1] Bonaros is the sole remaining parliamentary representative for SA-Best.

The Honourable Connie Bonaros MLC
Member of the South Australian Legislative Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 March 2018 (2018-03-17)
Personal details
Born	Constadina Bonaros
Political party	SA-Best
Children	1
Alma mater	University of Adelaide

Career

Bonaros has undergraduate degrees in Laws and Arts (Modern Greek and Social Politics) from the University of Adelaide.^[2] She had worked as a lawyer from 2003 until 2006 before becoming an advisor to Nick Xenophon for over 12 years. In 2007, Bonaros served as Xenophon's campaign manager. From 2007 she served in John Darley's office, running second on the ticket to Darley at that years election. She left Darley's office to join Senator Stirling Griff's office as his chief of staff when he was elected at the 2016 federal election.^[3]

Connie Bonaros was SA-Best's lead candidate for the Legislative Council at the 2018 South Australian state election.^[4] She was successfully elected at the 2018 state election, becoming one of SA-Best's two parliamentarians, alongside Frank Pangallo.^[5][6]

Bonaros introduced a bill for a ban on child-like sex dolls in August 2019.^[7] The bill received the support of both the opposition Labor and governing Liberal parties, was given royal assent in October 2019, and came into effect in January 2020.^[8][9]

Bonaros has campaigned for tighter regulation of anime and manga, due to concerns over depiction of child exploitation material. In February 2020, she called for an urgent review of Australian classification laws, highlighting Eromanga Sensei and No Game No Life as series that involve children and themes of incest, rape and sexual abuse.^[10] In July 2020, Books Kinokuniya removed those two series from their Sydney store, as well as five others, including Sword Art Online and Goblin Slayer.^[11][12] Bonaros' advocacy also led to volumes of No Game No Life being refused classification by the Australian Classification Board.^[13]

In January 2020, Connie Bonaros made a complaint of inappropriate sexual harassment against another member of Parliament, with the incident involving a slap and having occurred at a Christmas party at Parliament House.^[14] It soon emerged the complaint was against Sam Duluk, Liberal MP for Waite, who apologised and resigned from a parliamentary committee chair position.^[15] Following Bonaros' allegations and a report being made to the police, a statement was issued in April of 2020 by South Australia Police confirming that Duluk was facing one count of basic assault and would appear in court at a later date.^[16] Duluk was ultimately acquitted in August 2021 due to the conflicting testimony of Bonaros and a Greens staffer, the latter of whom had suggested a different and irreconcilable version of events, per magistrate John Wells. However, Wells labeled Duluk's behaviour towards Bonaros as "rude, unpleasant, insensitive and disrespectful".^[17] The following month, Tammy Franks used parliamentary privilege to levy additional allegations of sexual harassment and harassing remarks against Duluk.^[18]

Bonaros supported a measure by the Malinauskas Labor government to merge the University of South Australia and the University of Adelaide, creating Adelaide University. An October 2023 deal struck with Bonaros, as well as then-One Nation MLC Sarah Game, saw student support funds for the proposed new university increased by A$20 million to a total of A$120 million in order to allow for greater allocation of scholarships, as well as a A$40 million student support fund established for Flinders University.^[19]

Bonaros' colleague in SA-Best, Frank Pangallo, had not yet decided to support the bill at the time of Bonaros' support for it. This difference in opinion was reported by The Advertiser as a factor in Pangallo's December 2023 decision to leave SA-Best. Pangallo said at the time that his decision was motivated by ideological differences between him and Bonaros, while Bonaros stated that her values and that of SA-Best remained the same as those when she was elected.^[20]

In May of 2024, Connie Bonaros, Tammy Franks, and Mira El Dannawi all wore Palestinian keffiyeh in the Legislative Council, which symbolise support for Palestine. Liberal Nicola Centofanti criticised their decision as inappropriate and offensive, in response Bonaros cited the killing of children in Gaza following the October 7 attacks as a far greater offense.^[21]