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Liberals get first gay senator

By on May 7, 2012

Western Australia’s state Parliament has endorsed the federal Liberal Party’s first openly gay parliamentarian to fill a Senate vacancy.

Dean Smith, 42, will fill the Senate spot left vacant after Senator Judith Adams died of breast cancer in March.

Smith has publicly described himself as a conservative “constitutional revolutionary” who believes state parliaments should have a stronger say in federal constitutional matters and the selection of High Court judges, and is opposed to Australia becoming a republic.

Despite being openly gay, Smith also opposes same-sex marriage.

Smith was previously Bronwyn Bishop’s chief of staff and was a senior advisor to then Liberal leader John Howard during the 1998 federal election.

Until recently, Smith had worked as a lobbyist through his firm Smith & Duda Consulting.

Smith has already established an electorate office at 48 Ventnor Ave, West Perth, and will sit in the Senate until the next federal election in 2013.

About Andrew M Potts

4 Comments

  1. Mauricio

    May 7, 2012 at 3:14 pm


    How can you handle your moral within a parliament when you go against your nature??
    This is just not believable. Fake ideology read and learned from a very old book

    @Mauricio_L_Vera

  2. David

    May 7, 2012 at 6:18 pm


    Is he one of these self loathing gays that thinks that if we do as the conservatives dictate they will accept us? Wrong!

  3. Drew

    May 9, 2012 at 2:22 pm


    The Liberal / National Parties have never supported LGBT Law Reform.

    Just because this man is Homosexual, does not mean he supports LGBT Law Reform

    Think Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, a Feminist she certainly wasn’t.

    I mean, a former staffer to the Conservative Beehive…not the best CV

  4. Paul Mitchell

    May 11, 2012 at 1:30 pm


    That’s just what we need here in the Australian Senate – another hyprocrite!

    Gee, I really do miss Greens Leader Bob Brown – at least as a leader he stood for something, unlike others who are puppet masters of the Australian Christian Lobby and Hillsong!

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