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Controversial ex-senator David Leyonhjelm’s political career seems to have come to a unceremonal end.
Leyonhjelm left federal politics last year for the bright lights of the NSW Upper House.
Just days after confidently celebrating that he had secured the seat in the NSW Upper House it was revealed today that he...hadn't.
So to celebrate this momentous day in Australian politics we thought we’d take a look back at some of the highlights (or lowlights, as they were) of David Leyonhjelm’s time in politics.
Leyonhjelm’s time in federal parliament officially began in July 2014. In December 2014, days after the siege at Sydney’s Lindt cafe, Leyonhjelm used the tragedy to label Australians as “disarmed victims”.
The famously pro-gun Senator went on to suggest that perhaps the whole thing wouldn’t have happened if one of the hostages were carrying a weapon.
That time he tweeted threats at a journalist because of a bad photo
Back in 2016, South Australian journalist Tory Shepard wrote a piece on the Senator after he called the SA government “an obese 40-year-old-man with awful body odour who lives with his mother, refuses to work, and plays Xbox all day.”
Included in the article was a picture of Leyonhjelm yawning and on the phone whilst sitting in parliament. In response, he tweeted a warning at the journalist that “A photo of you even scratching your balls will go viral.”
He later found out that Shepard is a woman.
Who could forget the infamous “young, brown men” speech where Leyonhjelm stood up in front of federal parliament and thanked the oddly specific section of society for taking jobs “many other Aussies would turn up their noses at”?
According to the Senator, “They drive me in their Ubers and taxis. They deliver my online purchases, my groceries and my pizza. And they serve me at my local 7-Eleven, at my local service station, and my local restaurants.”
That time he slut-shamed Sarah Hanson-Young
Maybe one of the most high-profile incidents during Leyonhjelm’s time is when he told Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young to “stop shagging men” during a debate about women’s safety.
What followed was Leyonhjelm doubling down on his comments, Hanson-Young launching a defamation case after she accused him of “slut-shaming” and him eventually having to fork over $100,000 to Hanson-Young in court fees.
In November 2019, Justice Richard White ordered Leyonhjelm to pay a further $120,000 in damages to Hanson-Young.
That time he called Angela Bishop a “bitch”
Leyonhjelm came after Studio 10 host Angela Bishop when she labeled his Hanson-Young comments “pathetic”, calling Bishop a “bigoted bitch”.
He later went on the Studio 10 panel with Bishop to discuss the incident, where this interaction took place.
"You think it's proper to call women bitches?" fill-in panellist Hugh Riminton asked the senator.
"When they are bitches," Leyonhjelm replied.
When he threw his wife under the bus over a pool fine
Instead of paying the $220 fine issued by the City of Canada Bay for an unregistered pool in his backyard, in late 2018 Leyonhjelm decided to fight it in court.
His argument was that being on a pool register invaded his freedom and that the council had shown “gender bias” because they didn’t also fine his wife and pool co-owner, Amanda Downes.
A Sydney magistrate dismissed the claims in early 2019 and ordered him to pay $4,300 in fines and legal fees.
Farewell, David Leyonhjelm.
