Dr Dennis Jensen | |
---|---|
Member of the Australian Parliament for Tangney | |
In office 9 October 2004 –2 July 2016 | |
Preceded by | Daryl Williams |
Succeeded by | Ben Morton |
Personal details | |
Born | Johannesburg,South Africa | 28 February 1962
Political party | Liberal (to 2016) Conservatives (2017–2019) |
Other political affiliations | Independent (2016) |
Domestic partner | Trudy Hoad [1] |
Alma mater | |
Occupation |
|
Website | www |
Dennis Geoffrey Jensen (born 28 February 1962) is an Australian former politician. He was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2004 federal election, winning the Division of Tangney for the Liberal Party. Jensen lost Liberal preselection for the 2016 federal election, and subsequently resigned from the party to stand as an independent. [2] In August 2017 he joined the fledgling Australian Conservatives party. [3] Jensen has a PhD in materials science from Monash University, and before entering politics worked as a CSIRO researcher. He is known for questioning the anthropogenic causation of climate change. [4]
Jensen was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was educated at RMIT University, the University of Melbourne and Monash University, from where he has a PhD in materials science. He worked at the CSIRO as a research scientist and for the Department of Defence as a defence analyst before entering politics. [5]
Jensen was the Liberal candidate for the Division of Corio, Victoria at the 1998 election.
In 2006, Jensen lost his preselection for Tangney for the 2007 federal election, but won it back with the support of the state executive and prime minister John Howard. He lost preselection again for the 2010 election, but once again the state executive intervened and restored him as Liberal candidate. [ citation needed ]
Jensen rejects the scientific consensus on human-induced global warming and, on behalf of the Lavoisier Group, organised the release of a book [6] entitled Nine Facts About Climate Change by former mining CEO Ray Evans. In February 2007 during a Parliamentary sitting, Jensen quoted the then IPCC vice chairman Yuri Izrael, who had stated that "there is no proven link between human activity and global warming". [7]
His reputation as a [climate sceptic] became national when he and four government colleagues disagreed with others of their party in a dissenting committee report regarding climate change. [8] [9]
Jensen boycotted Parliament on the day that the formal apology to the Stolen Generations was made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. [10] He further courted controversy by telling Australian Indigenous people claiming to be affected by European colonisation over 200 years ago to "get over it." [11] He was one of six Liberal MPs (including fellow West Australian MPs Wilson Tuckey, Luke Simpkins and the late Don Randall as well as Peter Dutton, Sophie Mirabella and the late Alby Schultz) to leave the house (or boycott entirely) in protest to the apology to the Stolen Generations.
He is opposed to same-sex marriage in Australia. [12]
Jensen lost Liberal preselection in Tangney for the 2016 federal election. It was revealed he had written a technothriller, falsely portrayed as a work of erotic fiction, named "The Skywarriors" in which Indonesia invades Australia. [13] [14] Former party state director Ben Morton won preselection. [2] Jensen sued the Australian newspaper and Andrew Burrell, the journalist, for defamation. He won the case, and was paid a total of $1.1 million, including costs.
In August 2017, Jensen sent an email to former Liberal colleagues, saying he had joined the Australian Conservatives party started by Cory Bernardi, and urging them to follow him. [3]
Kevin James Andrews is an Australian former politician and member of the Liberal Party of Australia. He was the Member of House of Representatives for the seat of Menzies from a by-election in 1991 until the 2022 Australian federal election. Andrews is a conservative and a Catholic.
The Family First Party was a conservative political party in Australia which existed from 2002 to 2017. It was founded in South Australia where it enjoyed its greatest electoral support. Since the demise of the Australian Conservatives into which it merged, it has been refounded in that state as the Family First Party (2021), where it contested the state election in 2022, but failed to win a seat.
Russell Evan Broadbent is an Australian politician who is a member of the House of Representatives, representing the Division of Monash. He is one of the longest-serving current members of parliament, having been in parliament from 1990 to 1993, from 1996 to 1998, and since 2004. In November 2023, he stood down from the Liberal Party and its parliamentary party room and joined the crossbench in response to losing his party endorsement ahead of a federal election due by September 2025.
The Division of Tangney is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. The Division was named after Dame Dorothy Tangney, the first female member of the Australian Senate.
William Richard Shorten is an Australian politician and former trade unionist serving as the current Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. Previously, Shorten was leader of the opposition and leader of the Labor Party (ALP) from 2013 to 2019. A member of parliament (MP) for the division of Maribyrnong since 2007, Shorten also held several ministerial portfolios in the Gillard and Rudd governments from 2010 to 2013.
Alexander George Hawke is an Australian politician who served as Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs from 2020 to 2022 in the Morrison government. Hawke has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mitchell since 2007, representing the Liberal Party.
Susan Barbara Jeanes is an Australian politician. She was a Liberal Party of Australia member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1996 to 1998, representing the electorate of Kingston. She defeated Labor MP Gordon Bilney as part of the Liberal victory at the 1996 federal election, only to lose to Labor candidate David Cox at the closer-run 1998 federal election.
Cory Bernardi is an Australian conservative political commentator and former politician. He was a Senator for South Australia from 2006 to 2020, and was the leader of the Australian Conservatives, a minor political party he founded in 2017 but disbanded in 2019. He is a former member of the Liberal Party of Australia, having represented the party in the Senate from 2006 to 2017. He is the author of The Conservative Revolution.
This article provides details on candidates who stood at the 2007 Australian federal election.
Kenneth James Aldred was an Australian politician who represented the Liberal Party in the Australian House of Representatives between 1975 and 1980 and again from 1983 to 1996.
Luke Xavier Linton Simpkins is a former Australian politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 2007 to 2016. He represented the Division of Cowan in Western Australia for the Liberal Party.
This is a list of members of the Australian House of Representatives of the 44th Parliament of Australia (2013–2016), as elected at the 2013 federal election.
Timothy Robert Wilson is an Australian former politician and a member of the Liberal Party of Australia who served as the Federal Member for Goldstein in the Australian House of Representatives from 2016 to 2022. Wilson served as the Chair of the Standing Committee on Economics from 2018 to 2021 and as the Assistant Minister to the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction from 2021 to 2022. In the 2022 Australian federal election, Wilson lost his seat to independent candidate Zoe Daniel.
The 2019 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 18 May 2019 to elect members of the 46th Parliament of Australia. The election had been called following the dissolution of the 45th Parliament as elected at the 2016 double dissolution federal election. All 151 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate were up for election.
Rebekha Carina Sharkie is an Australian politician and member of the Centre Alliance party. She is a member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Mayo in South Australia.
Ben Morton is an Australian former politician. He represented the Australian House of Representatives seat of Tangney for the Liberal Party from 2 July 2016 until he lost the seat at the 2022 Australian federal election. Morton served as Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet from 2019 to 2020, Assistant Minister to the Minister for the Public Service and Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters from 2020 to 2021, and Minister for the Public Service and Special Minister of State from 2021 to 2022.
Libby Lyons is an Australian former public servant who served as the director of the Australian Government's Workplace Gender Equality Agency. She was appointed director in October 2015 and completed her term in April 2021. As director, Lyons played a key role in promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces. She has also been a member of and chaired many boards in several sectors.
Australian Conservatives was a conservative political party in Australia formed in 2017. It was led by Cory Bernardi, who had been elected to the Senate for the Liberal Party, but resigned citing disagreements with the Liberal/National Coalition, its policies and leadership under Malcolm Turnbull.
The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth consecutive term in office but was defeated by the opposition Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese. Up for election were all 151 seats in the lower house, the House of Representatives, as well as 40 of the 76 seats in the upper house, the Senate.
The next Australian federal election will be held on or before 27 September 2025 to elect members of the 48th Parliament of Australia. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and likely 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate will be contested. It is expected that at this election, the Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be seeking re-election to a second term in office, opposed by the Liberal/National Coalition under Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton.