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Dean Smith (Australian politician)

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This article is about the Liberal Party of Australia senator for WA. For the House of Reps candidate for O'Connor, WA, in the 2019 election, see Pauline Hanson's One Nation; for other uses, see Dean Smith (disambiguation).

Senator
Dean Smith
Smith in 2022
Chief Government Whip in the Senate
In office
21 January 2019 – 23 May 2022
Prime MinisterScott Morrison
Preceded byDavid Bushby
Succeeded byAnne Urquhart
Senator for Western Australia
Incumbent
Assumed office
2 May 2012
Preceded byJudith Adams
Personal details
Born
Dean Anthony Smith

(1969-05-15) 15 May 1969 (age 55)
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Political partyLiberal Party of Australia
Alma materUniversity of Western Australia
OccupationPolitician

Dean Anthony Smith (born 15 May 1969) is an Australian politician and Liberal Party member of the Australian Senate since 2012, representing Western Australia.[1][2]

Early life

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Smith attended Mirrabooka Primary School and Mirrabooka Senior High School, later attending the University of Western Australia where he graduated with honours in political science.[1]

Politics

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Smith joined the Liberal Party at the age of 17, and later worked as a policy adviser to Premier of Western Australia Richard Court. In 1998, he was a senior advisor to Prime Minister John Howard during the Coalition's 1998 federal election campaign. In 2010, he founded Smith & Duda Consulting, a political lobbying firm,[3] and also served as treasurer of the Liberal Party state branch in Western Australia.[4][5]

Smith is factionally unaligned.[6][7]

Senate

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Smith was appointed to the Senate on 2 May 2012 by a joint sitting of the Parliament of Western Australia, to fill a casual vacancy caused by the death of Senator Judith Adams.[8]

Smith was the first openly-LGBTI member of the Parliament of Australia from the Liberal Party, and has supported same-sex marriage in Australia since the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis.[9] Prior to that, he opposed same-sex marriage and voted against it.[10] Smith introduced the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 to the Senate on 15 November and passed the Senate on 29 November 2017.[11]

Smith was appointed Chief Government Whip in the Senate on 21 January 2019.[12]

He served on the "Inquiry into the destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia", which delivered its interim report in December 2020.[13] He co-authored additional dissenting comments to the Inquiry's final report with George Christensen MP, arguing against the report's recommendation for new Commonwealth heritage legislation because the "duplication of cultural heritage protection laws at a Federal level is not supported by peak [mining] industry bodies."[14]

Smith is a member of a number of political and community organisations, including Australians for Constitutional Monarchy[15] and the Australian National Flag Association.[citation needed]

Personal life

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Smith is the son of a policeman and housewife and is originally from Mirrabooka.[16] He was the first person in his family to attend university.[16] He is an Anglican.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Election of Senator" (PDF). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Western Australia: Joint Sitting of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly. 2 May 2012. pp. 2022–2024.
  2. ^ "Senator Dean Smith". Senators and Members of the Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  3. ^ LinkedIn profile[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ Guest, Debbie (23 April 2012). "Former Howard man steps into West Australian Senate seat (Subscription)". The Australian. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  5. ^ Karp, Paul (29 November 2017). "Same-sex marriage bill passes in Australian Senate". the Guardian. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  6. ^ Massola, James (20 March 2021). "Who's who in the Liberals' left, right and centre factions?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  7. ^ Massola, James. "How Morrison's shattering defeat gave Dutton a seismic shift in factional power". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  8. ^ "Dean Smith confirmed as WA's newest Senator". ABC News. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  9. ^ Knott, Matthew (20 February 2015). "Liberal MP Dean Smith's views on same-sex marriage turned at 30,000ft". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  10. ^ Smith voted very strongly against same-sex marriage equality
  11. ^ "Legislative Tracker: Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017". Parliament of Australia. 15 November 2017.
  12. ^ "It's a great honour to be chosen by my Liberal Senate colleagues to be the Chief Government Whip in the Senate. I am delighted to be joining the ranks of WA Liberals who have served in the office which includes Malcolm Scott, Reg Withers, Fred Chaney and John Panizza. #auspol". Dean Smith MP. Twitter. 21 January 2019.
  13. ^ Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia (December 2020). Never again: Inquiry into the destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia - Interim Report. Commonwealth of Australia. ISBN 978-1-76092-197-2. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021. PDF
  14. ^ Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia (2021). A Way Forward: Final report into the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Juukan Gorge (PDF). Canberra: Parliament of Australia. p. 214.
  15. ^ "Conference on The Crown". Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  16. ^ a b Taylor, Paige (6 May 2012). "New senator a 'constitutional revolutionary'". THE AUSTRALIAN. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  17. ^ @deansmithwa (29 August 2017). "Proud to be an anglican. Congrats to WA's new Anglican Archbishop - grace, dignity and true leadership" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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