Llewellyn was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly for the seat of
Lyons at the
1986 state election which was won by the Liberal Party under
Robin Gray. Labor formed a minority government with the support of the
Green Independents under the
Labor–Green Accord in 1989, and Llewellyn joined
Michael Field's inaugural cabinet as Minister for Primary Industry and Forests. Llewellyn would hold the Primary Industries, Water and Energy portfolios on several other occasions, from 1998 to 2002 and 2006 to 2008. From 2002 to 2006, he was
Paul Lennon's
Deputy Premier. On 13 May 2011, Llewellyn admitted to ABC Radio that the Labor and Liberal parties conspired in 1998 to reduce the number of MPs from 35 to 25 in an effort to eliminate the
Greens. On 25 June 2012, Llewellyn was preselected to run as a Tasmanian Labor candidate in the
2014 state election, and was subsequently re-elected to the House of Assembly after losing his seat in 2010. He retired at the
2018 election. ==Personal life==