Dennis Geoffrey Jensen (born 28 February 1962) is a former Australian politician. He was elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

at the 2004 federal election, winning the

Division of Tangney The Division of Tangney is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. The Division was named after Dame Dorothy Tangney, the first female member of the Australian Senate. Tangney is an affluent electorate covering t ...

for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. Jensen lost Liberal

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presele ...

for the 2016 federal election, and subsequently resigned from the party to stand as an independent.Dennis Jensen, West Australian MP, blames 'dirty tricks' after being dumped by Liberal preselectors: ABC 3 April 2016
/ref> In August 2017 he joined the fledgling

Australian Conservatives The Australian Conservatives was formed in July 2016 as a conservative political activist group in Australia and as a political party in February 2017. It was led by Cory Bernardi, who had been elected to the Senate for the Liberal Party, b ...

party. Jensen has a PhD in materials science from

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

, and before entering politics worked as a

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

researcher. He is known for questioning the anthropogenic causation of climate change.

Early life

Jensen was born in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He was educated at

RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...

, the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

and

, from where he has a PhD in materials science. He worked at the

as a research scientist and for the Department of Defence as a defence analyst before entering politics.

Politics

Jensen was the Liberal candidate for the

Division of Corio The Division of Corio is an Australian electoral division in the state of Victoria. The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first federal election. Named for Corio Bay, it has alw ...

, Victoria at the 1998 election. In 2006, Jensen lost his

for Tangney for the 2007 federal election, but won it back with the support of the state executive and prime minister

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...

. He lost preselection again for the 2010 election, but once again the state executive intervened and restored him as Liberal candidate. Jensen rejects the scientific consensus on human-induced global warming and, on behalf of the

Lavoisier Group The Lavoisier Group is an Australian organisation formed by politicians and dominated by retired industrial businesspeople and engineers.Ray Evans. In February 2007 during a Parliamentary sitting, Jensen quoted the then

IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ...

vice chairman Yuri Izrael, who had stated that "there is no proven link between human activity and global warming". His reputation as a

sceptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

became national when he and four government colleagues disagreed with others of their party in a dissenting

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

report regarding climate change. Jensen boycotted Parliament on the day that the formal apology to the Stolen Generations was made by Prime Minister

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...

. He further courted controversy by telling Australian Indigenous people claiming to be affected by European colonisation over 200 years ago to "get over it." He was one of six Liberal MPs (including fellow West Australian MPs

Wilson Tuckey Charles Wilson Tuckey (born 10 July 1935) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 1980 to 2010, representing the seat of O'Connor in Western Australia for the Liberal Party. He was a minister in ...

, Luke Simpkins and the late Don Randall as well as

Peter Dutton Peter Craig Dutton (born 18 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Dickson in the House of Representatives sinc ...

Sophie Mirabella Sophie Mirabella (née Panopoulos; born 27 October 1968) is an Australian lawyer and former politician who currently serves as a Commissioner on the Fair Work Commission since 24 May 2021. She was previously a Liberal Party member of the Austra ...

and the late Alby Schultz) to leave the house (or boycott entirely) in protest to the apology to the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...

. He is opposed to

same-sex marriage in Australia Same-sex marriage in Australia has been legal since 9 December 2017. Legislation to allow same-sex marriage, the '' Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017'', passed the Australian Parliament on 7 December 2017 and rece ...

Lost Liberal pre-selection

Jensen lost Liberal preselection in Tangney for the 2016 federal election. It was revealed he had written a technothriller, falsely portrayed as a work of erotic fiction, named "The Skywarriors" in which

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

invades Australia. Former party state director Ben Morton won preselection. In August 2017, Jensen sent an email to former Liberal colleagues, saying he had joined the

party started by

Cory Bernardi Cory Bernardi (born 6 November 1969) is an Australian conservative political commentator and former politician. He was a Senator for South Australia from 2006 to 2020, and was the leader of the Australian Conservatives, a minor political party ...

, and urging them to follow him.

Bibliography

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen, Dennis 1962 births Air traffic controllers Alumni of Pretoria Boys High School Australian engineers Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Living people Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Tangney Monash University alumni People from Johannesburg RMIT University alumni South African emigrants to Australia People who lost South African citizenship Naturalised citizens of Australia University of Melbourne alumni 21st-century Australian politicians Australian Conservatives members