Improving SA’s ‘terrible’ wine reputation in UK tops Biggles’ new gig hitlist
Former speaker Leon ‘Biggles’ Bignell will jet off to the UK next week to take up a major international job spruiking South Australia. While AUKUS opportunities are a key focus, it is SA vino that is front of mind for the long-term MP.
For the past few weeks, former SA speaker Leon Bignell has been taking briefings on defence, mining and trade opportunities with the United Kingdom in preparation for his plum new job in London.
The former Labour-turned-independent MP will fly to the UK next Tuesday to take on the coveted job as Agent-General to London, replacing former Liberal MP David Ridgway, who has been in the job for the past five years and recently succeeded in getting Vili’s pies back on UK supermarket shelves.
The Office of the Agent-General for South Australia in London represents the state in the United Kingdom and Europe, with its key job to maximise economic and trade opportunities for the state.
Bignell says these opportunities are growing, and while the trilateral defence pact with the United States and the United Kingdom is “really important”, it was promoting SA products and services that will be the core focus for the new Agent-General.
That begins with improving South Australia’s wine export figures, said Bignell, who, prior to entering politics, worked for two decades as a journalist at media outlets ranging from the ABC to Channel 7, Channel 10 and News Ltd, as well as spending two years in Switzerland working as a foreign correspondent.
“I want to see the wine figures improve,” he said, referring to SA wine export figures to the UK falling by three per cent in 2025 to $74.9 million.
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“It’s terrible how badly we’re going with our wine sales in the UK, and it’s something that’s been on the slide for decades.
“The labels are unrecognisable in many instances, and it’s all this crap from South Eastern Australia, and we’re better than that.”
His plan was to promote premium South Australian wine: “You go anywhere in the world, and you won’t find better wines than the Clare Valley and Eden Valley Rieslings, McLaren Vale is famous for Grenache, you’ve got amazing cab savs and Shiraz from the Barossa”.
“It breaks my heart to go into the UK and see the stuff that’s being peddled there under this label of ‘South Eastern Australia’,” he said.
“The water that they’ve used in the wine out of the Murray Darling system would have been better staying in the river system rather than going into a dozen wines that they’re selling for 49 pounds a case.
“Let’s reclaim South Australia’s spot as a fine wine producer with a fine reputation in the UK.”
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Bignell said he had already started work, meeting UK contacts via Zoom and chatting on WhatsApp.
This included the newly appointed SA Regional Director for the United Kingdom and Europe Rosanne Brand, who will report to Bignell and lead the office in connecting SA businesses with trade, export and investment opportunities across the region.
Both new appointments follow the signing of Australia’s new trade deal with the European Union that does not include the UK, which means 98 per cent of Australian goods would enter the region duty-free once it receives the final sign off.
Bignell said this deal would benefit SA, with the market already worth $1.11 billion to the state as of February 2026.
And he did not downplay the importance of AUKUS, saying he had spent the past week learning everything he needed to know about the defence industry in South Australia and connections with UK companies.
“We have a quickly developing sector here,” he said.
“I love that sort of stuff – we have competitive tensions, but we’re also collaborating to help build the sector.”
He will work closely with former SA Premier Jay Weatherill – now Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom; a full-circle moment for Bignell, who was a Minister in Weatherill’s SA Labor government.
Weatherill gave Bignell the ministerial positions covering agriculture, food, fisheries, forests, tourism, recreation, sport and racing, which he held until the 2018 state election.
“He put me to work and said, ‘Your job is to be the state’s number one salesman’,” Bignell said.
“Get out, go around the world, sell South Australia.
“It’s pretty much what this role is. To be able to do it alongside Jay over there is going to be tremendous.”
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