THE Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has declared Warwick Stacey as winner of NSW’s final seat in the Senate. He joins One Nation’s Tyron Whitten who earlier in the week won the final WA seat.
The two wins gives Pauline Hanson’s One Nation four seats in the Senate chambers, equal to the four seats won by National Party senators. Senator Malcolm Roberts was also re-elected for another term and welcomed his new colleagues yesterday.
Senator Hanson has told Sky News her party would use its increased representation to advocate for Australia to pull out of global climate commitments.
“Climate change is a scam and it is not going to help the Australian people, but it is putting them into more hurt and pain,” she said.
“We will stand firm on our policies, we will advocate what we stand for and we will hold the government to account and state our case to the Australian public.”
Tragically the Senate is set to be dominated by 28 Labor and 11 Greens senators. These senators are all party robots who will simply rubber stamp the party’s agenda set in the Lower House.
The Greens will in effect hold the balance of power and although unlikely, should they want to cause Labor grief they could block Labor bills by voting with the LNP.
The Australian-born Stacey (73) attended Sydney Grammar School and moved to France at the age of 21 and later lived in the UK where he gained an MA in European literature from King’s College London and then the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
He served in the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, was troop commander in the 22 SAS Regiment and later spent 10 years in the Australian Army Reserve.
After leaving the military he worked as a military contractor and later became a crisis and risk manager with Control Risks Group, Pinkerton, Aegis Defence Services and Steve Vickers Associates.
In 2001 Tyron Whitten and his brother Clayton established Whittens, a privately owned earthworks and construction business operating in the resources, defence and infrastructure segments.
The West Australian newspaper described Whitten’s win as a “shock” and “last gasp win over Labor” after coming from behind Labor’s candidate to win on preference distribution.
