FORMER Wallaby and independent David Pocock has defeated Liberal Zed Seselja in taking the ACT’s second seat in the Senate.
The Australian Electoral Commision announced Mr Pocock’s victory this morning (June 14). The final result saw Mr Pocock receive 21.18 per cent of primary votes and successfully attain a quota at the distribution of preferences.
He will sit alongside Labor’s Katy Gallagher as one of two senators representing the ACT.
“For the first time, we have an independent voice representing the ACT in federal parliament,” said Mr Pocock.
“Our campaign aimed to make politics about people. We built a policy platform off the back of thousands of conversations about the things that matter.”
Mr Pocock congratulated Ms Gallagher on her re-election and acknowledged the work of Mr Seselja over his nine years as Senator.
“Today, the extraordinary movement of people we brought together across the ACT made history,” he said.
“Thank you to everyone who put their trust in me to represent you. It is an incredible honour to be able to serve a community I love.”
Mr Seselja conceded defeat and congratulated Mr Pocock on his election this morning.
His loss means Canberra will not have any Liberal representation in the federal parliament for the first time since the introduction of ACT Senate representation in 1975.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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