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Rennick appealing to party in final bid to save Senate career

Renegade Queensland senator Gerard Rennick will launch a bid for the LNP to hear his appeal after being ousted in an internal ballot that wrongly refused Peter Dutton from voting.

Senator Gerard Rennick outside the Brisbane Supreme Court. Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard
Senator Gerard Rennick outside the Brisbane Supreme Court. Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Queensland senator Gerard Rennick will launch a last-ditch bid to save his parliamentary career at next weekend’s annual Liberal National Party convention with a push to appeal his preselection ousting.

Senator Rennick, who angered some in the party ranks when he withdrew his vote for the Morrison government in 2021 in protest against Covid-19 vaccine mandates, narrowly lost a pre­selection ballot last year for the third spot on the LNP’s Senate ticket.

The first-term senator was beaten by party treasurer Stuart Fraser in the ballot on July 7 last year by three votes.

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An internal probe by the LNP’s disputes committee later found at least two party members ineligible to vote but allowed to cast a ballot, amid alle­gations of other voter “irregularities”.

Federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton – a supporter of Senator Rennick – was incorrectly told by LNP headquarters that he was ineligible to vote because he was not able to attend the ballot.

Despite the findings, the disputes committee concluded there was insufficient evidence to justify holding the preselection again.

Senator Rennick is rallying numbers within State Council to refuse to ratify an LNP state executive decision not to allow a further appeal on the outcome of the vote, after it was only lodged earlier this year.

State Council will meet on Friday, the first day of the LNP state convention.

Federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman
Federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

It will be Senator Rennick’s last chance to force a rerun of the Senate preselection after the ­Supreme Court in May refused an application to order the appeal.

In his application to the Supreme Court, Senator Rennick was seeking declarations he was entitled to appeal the disputes committee, blaming the delay on the LNP refusing to hand over documents.

In his judgment, judge Glenn Martin said it was open to the LNP state executive to determine the question of an appeal period “as it sees fit … While I will not make a declaration about what might be a reasonable time limit for appealing a decision, I am content to decide that this appeal, lodged seven months after the decision, is outside any reasonable time limit,” he said.

Late in May, Senator Rennick wrote to State Council members to object to an emailed statement to party members from LNP president Lawrence Springborg after the court ruling. Mr Springborg described the ruling as dismissing “Gerard Rennick’s legal action to overturn the result of last year’s Senate preselection”.

In his statement, Senator Rennick said he did not ask the court to overturn the outcome of the preselection ballot. “It has always been my view state councillors must be the ones who decide the merits of the appeal, not the secretariat or executives … responsible for running the preselection.”

Read related topics:Peter Dutton
Michael McKenna
Michael McKennaQueensland Editor

Michael McKenna is Queensland Editor at The Australian.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/rennick-appealing-to-party-in-final-bid-to-save-senate-career/news-story/f6319c5d135f0035e6f04b62c3088b3b