Tasmanian Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam delivered his maiden speech today.
Duniam, 33, won election after former senator and minister Richard Colbeck was relegated to a difficult position on the Liberal Party’s Senate ticket.
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There will be 14 new faces in the new Senate when it meets for the first time on August 30.
This represents 18.42% of the Senate’s 76 members. Each state has 12 senators, whilst the territories have 2 each, who serve terms concurrent with the House of Representatives. The double dissolution meant that all 76 positions were up for election on July 2.
The fourteen new senators include two (Louise Pratt and Don Farrell) who were Labor senators defeated in 2013.
Ten of the fourteen departed senators were defeated in the election, whilst four retired.
The Tasmanian Senate election results have been finalised and announced by the Australian Electoral Commission.
The ALP has won 5 seats, returning all of its sitting senators, including Lisa Singh. The Liberals have won 4 seats, but Richard Colbeck has been defeated. The two Greens senators have been re-elected, as has Jacqui Lambie.
Despite being relegated to the sixth position on the ALP ticket, Singh secured a large number of below-the-line votes and was re-elected, displacing John Short, the Tasmanian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, who held the fifth position.
Richard Colbeck also received a significant number of below-the-line votes but insufficient to get him across the line. Colbeck was Minister for Tourism and International Education in the Turnbull government. He supported Turnbull against Abbott in last year’s leadership contest. His relegation to the fifth position on the Liberal ticket was widely seen as orchestrated by Senator Eric Abetz.
Colbeck’s position will be taken by Jonathon Duniam, 33, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman.