August 28, 2024
Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick has quit the LNP.
Senator Rennick, who was born in Chinchilla but maintains his electorate office in Brisbane, announced his resignation on Sunday.
He was elected to the Senate in 2019, and sat with the Liberal Party in Canberra.
Last year, Senator Rennick lost pre-selection for the third slot on the LNP’s Senate ticket.
He challenged the result with the LNP’s Disputes Committee which found there was insufficient evidence to rule that the decision – which Senator Rennick lost by just a few votes – was void.
He then failed in a Supreme Court bid to overturn the pre-selection result after claiming there had been “grave irregularities” in the process.
Senator Rennick will sit on the crossbench for the rest of his term.
He also announced at the weekend he intends to form a new party, which he hopes to call “People First” and plans to run at the next Federal Election.
During his term, Senator Rennick has been outspoken on climate change, accusing the Bureau of Meteorology of manipulating weather observations to “show a false increase in temperature” and claiming the “greatest threat to the environment is climate change alarmism”.
He has also attracted much support on social media for his stance during the COVID-19 pandemic, linking excess deaths to alleged vaccine injuries.
