Senator Storer joins party of one

Crossbench senator Tim Storer has followed in the footsteps of former mentor Nick Xenophon and established his own party.

Tim Storer, independent senator for South Australia. Picture: AAP

Crossbench senator Tim Storer has followed in the footsteps of former mentor Nick Xenophon and established his own party.

The former member and candidate of the now defunct Nick Xenophon Team has applied to the Australian Electoral Commission to register the name Tim Storer Independent SA Party ahead of the federal election.

Senator Storer said he ­believed South Australians ­“deserved an opportunity to vote for a candidate whose decisions are based on the merits of particular policies from evidence-based review under principles of integrity, fairness, prosperity and sustainability, rather than established partisan viewpoints”.

“I have already demonstrated this in my approach to the policy decisions presented to me in my first few months in the Senate,” he said yesterday. “It has been, for example, my approach to the government’s proposals for changes to company and personal tax. I believe there must be responsible, broad-based reform of the tax and transfer system rather than isolated initiatives as have been presented so far.”

Senator Storer pointed to his calls for an increase in Newstart as evidence of his approach.

The former business consultant, who took his seat in parliament in March as an independent after having resigned from NXT, shot to prominence when he refused to support the Turnbull government’s enterprise tax plan, ­declaring the money would be better spent on “well-targeted social and economic programs”.

He said yesterday his new party would focus on his “passionate belief” that advanced manufacturing could be revitalised with an electric ­vehicle industry in Australia.