Dean Anthony Smith (born 15 May 1969) is an Australian politician and

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 ...

member of the Australian Senate since 2012, representing

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Early life

Smith attended Mirrabooka Primary School and

Mirrabooka Senior High School Dianella Secondary College (formerly Mirrabooka Senior High School) is a public co-educational high day school, located in Dianella in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. It teaches years 7 to 12 in the Australian education sys ...

, later attending the University of Western Australia where he graduated with honours in political science.

Politics

Smith joined the Liberal Party at the age of 17, and later worked as a policy adviser to

Premier of Western Australia The premier of Western Australia is the head of government of the state of Western Australia. The role of premier at a state level is similar to the role of the prime minister of Australia at a federal level. The premier leads the executive bra ...

Richard Court Richard Fairfax Court (born 27 September 1947) is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He served as Premier of Western Australia from 1993 to 2001 and as Australian Ambassador to Japan from 2017 to 2020. A member of the Liberal Party, ...

. In 1998, he was a senior advisor to 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 ...

during the Coalition's 1998 federal election campaign. In 2010, he founded Smith & Duda Consulting, a political lobbying firm, and also served as treasurer of the Liberal Party state branch in Western Australia.

Senate

Smith was appointed to the Senate on 2 May 2012 by a joint sitting of the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliament consists of a lower house, the Legislative ...

, to fill a

casual vacancy In politics, a casual vacancy (''casual'' in the sense of "by chance") is a situation in which a seat in a deliberative assembly becomes vacant during that assembly's term. Casual vacancies may arise through the death, resignation or disqualifi ...

caused by the death of Senator Judith Adams. Smith was the first openly-LGBTI member of the Parliament of Australia from the Liberal Party, and has supported

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 ...

since the

2014 Sydney hostage crisis The Lindt Cafe siege was a terrorist attack that occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café in the APA Building in Martin Place, Sydney, ...

. Prior to that, he opposed same-sex marriage and voted against it. Smith introduced the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 to the Senate on 15 November and passed the Senate on 29 November 2017. Smith was appointed

Chief Government Whip The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom ...

in the Senate on 21 January 2019. He served on the "Inquiry into the destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the

Juukan Gorge Juukan Gorge is a gorge in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, about from Mt Tom Price. It was named by the daughter of Puutu Kunti Kurrama man Juukan, also known as Tommy Ashburton, who was born at Jukarinya (Mt Br ...

in the Pilbara region of Western Australia", which delivered its interim report in December 2020.PDF
/ref> He co-authored additional dissenting comments to the Inquiry's final report with George Christensen MP, arguing against the report's recommendation for new Commonwealth heritage legislation because the "duplication of cultural heritage protection laws at a Federal level is not supported by peak iningindustry bodies." Smith is a member of a number of political and community organisations, including

Australians for Constitutional Monarchy Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (ACM) is a group that aims to preserve Australia's current constitutional monarchy, with Charles III as King of Australia. The group states that it is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organisation whose rol ...

and the Australian National Flag Association.

Personal life

Smith is the son of a policeman and housewife and is originally from Mirrabooka. He was the first person in his family to attend university. He is an Anglican.

References

External links

Official website

Summary of parliamentary voting for Senator Dean Smith on TheyVoteForYou.org.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Dean 1969 births Living people Australian monarchists Australian political consultants Australian gay men Gay politicians LGBT conservatism LGBT legislators in Australia Australian LGBT rights activists Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian Senate for Western Australia Members of the Australian Senate Politicians from Perth, Western Australia Turnbull government University of Western Australia alumni 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian LGBT people