Bastian Seidel

Bastian Manfred Seidel (born 23 April 1975) is an Australian politician and medical doctor.
Seidel was born in Kamen, a small town in the Ruhr Valley region of Germany, and undertook preliminary medical training in South Africa and Germany, before completing specialist general practitioner training in the United Kingdom. In 2007, he emigrated to Australia on a skilled migrant visa, and established a medical practice in Huonville, Tasmania in 2008. He was president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) from 2016 to 2018.
Seidel was married to Erica Bell, an academic, medical researcher and novelist. Bell died from a brain haemorrhage in 2014, and Seidel established the Erica Bell Foundation in her memory, which awards two $10,000 literary prizes each year.
In 2020, Seidel nominated as a candidate for the Australian Labor Party at the 2020 election for the Tasmanian Legislative Council division of Huon. He was elected on 1 August 2020, defeating incumbent independent MLC Robert Armstrong.