Malcolm Roberts returns to federal parliament as Queensland senator

The One Nation Party member had been disqualified previously over dual citizenship issues.

VIDEO ABOVE: Pauline's people - the One Nation support in Queensland

Malcolm Roberts will return to the federal upper house after being confirmed as one of six Queensland senators.

Roberts, representing Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, was elected in fourth place in the final results released by the Australian Electoral Commission.
The Queensland cohort consists of three LNP members, Roberts and Larissa Waters from the Greens.

Labor, who suffered an embarrassing electoral defeat in the state at the recent federal election, managed to snare just one senate spot.

Malcolm Roberts has had a relatively short but busy political career.

He was first elected to the Senate at the July 2016 federal election.

In October 2017, the High Court ruled that he was in fact ineligible to be elected, as he was still a British citizen when he was nominated as a senate candidate (in June 2016). Although he had renounced his UK citizenship in December of 2016, the disqualified Roberts from parliament.

He then turned his attention to Queensland state parliament, where he ran an unsuccessful campaign in the district of Ipswich at the 2017 state election.

At the May federal election, Roberts led the Queensland senate ticket for the One Nation Party.

It followed the ousting of the party's previous state leader, Steve Dickson, who was forced to resign after vision emerged of him in a US strip club groping and making derogatory comments about women.

Mr Roberts is a very vocal climate change denier, who has repeatedly claimed that there's 'no empirical evidence' that humans are involved.

He's a fierce advocate for the Adani coal mine, which proved to be a pivotal issue for voters in Queensland.
He's also tough on immigration - in October 2018 he called for Australia's immigration rate to be more than halved to just 70,000.

Mr Roberts is one of three politicians caught up in the dual citizenship saga that will return to the new parliament, alongside Larissa Waters and Tasmanian Senator, Jacqui Lambie.



Share
Follow The Feed
Through award winning storytelling, The Feed continues to break new ground with its compelling mix of current affairs, comedy, profiles and investigations. See Different. Know Better. Laugh Harder. Read more about The Feed
Have a story or comment? Contact Us

Through award winning storytelling, The Feed continues to break new ground with its compelling mix of current affairs, comedy, profiles and investigations. See Different. Know Better. Laugh Harder.
Watch nowOn Demand
Follow The Feed
2 min read

Published

By Elly Duncan

Tags

Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world