THE political career of Dennis Jensen — the first federal Coalition MP to publicly deny human-induced climate change, setting in train the tsunami that ended Kevin Rudd’s leadership and birthed Tony Abbott’s — is all but over according to a long-time member of the Liberal Party’s powerful governing body in WA.
According to the Herald’s well-placed source on the Liberal state council, former WA party director Ben Morton will “romp it home” in the imminent preselection battle for blue-ribbon Tangney.
Dr Jensen has never been popular with local branch members, who’ve voted twice to dump him in previous preselections.
“He’s only there because [John] Howard leaned on the state council to support him,” our source says.
“Without that, he would have been gone ages ago—it’s only a matter of time.”
Our source labelled the MP — who holds a material science doctorate and a masters in physics — one-dimensional and not a team player.
“Morton is a good communicator who can make the transition from behind the scenes to centre stage,” the source says.
Mr Morton wrote to party members recently stating he was resigning his private sector job to seek preselection for the seat, which takes in most of Melville and a chunk of Canning.
Dr Jensen says he is not allowed to discuss preselection matters in public.
He defended his speech in parliament last month where, in backing the Barnett government’s management of Aboriginal settlements he referred to the “noble savage lifestyle” (Herald, February 27, 2016).
“It’s a sad indictment of the education system that people did not understand that I was referring to a certain lifestyle—they misinterpreted it,” he says.
The Chook asked if he should be less esoteric so more people can understand what he means.
“Do you want me to dumb it down so a four-year-old can understand it? That would be insulting the intelligence of the Australian people.”
The South African-born MP was one of a handful of Coalition MPs to boycott parliament the day Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology to the stolen generations, and he is opposed to marriage equality.
Notre Dame University politics lecturer Martin Drum says Mr Morton will be a “formidable opponent” for preselection and notes that under his watch, the Liberals did not lose a single seat at state or federal level.
“Preselections are based around personalities and not policies. Much more important will be Dr Jensen’s relationships with key party figures and the branches in Tangney.”
by STEPHEN POLLOCK
