Politician elected with just 98 VOTES whose party’s only policy is bringing in daylight savings reveals he doesn’t even live in Australia
- Newly elected politician has revealed he does not currently reside in Australia
- Wilson Tucker secured a seat in Legislative Council’s Mining and Pastoral Region
- He is the leader of WA’s Daylight Saving Party, which he founded back in 2016
- Mr Tucker is currently in Seattle, US, where he works as a senior engineer
A politician who was elected with just 98 primary votes and only stands for one issue has admitted he doesn’t even live in Australia.
Western Australia‘s Daylight Saving Party leader Wilson Tucker secured a seat in the Legislative Council’s Mining and Pastoral Region on Thursday.
But the 36-year-old lives in Seattle where he works as a senior engineer for an American tech firm.
To be elected to the upper house, the WA Electoral Commission says candidates must be 18 and over, an Australian citizen, and have lived in the state for a year, among other rules.
WA’s Daylight Saving Party leader Wilson Tucker secured a seat in the Legislative Council’s Mining and Pastoral Region on Thursday
Mr Tucker earlier said he would move back to Australia if he was voted in, The Kalgoorlie Miner reported.
‘I was never intending to live forever in the US, it was more of a short-term decision that I made,’ he said.
‘With the opportunity now, and if I do get elected, it’s certainly a no-brainer in terms of coming back and representing the people of Western Australia as best I can.
‘So for me it would make total sense to come back and it was a decision I was always going to make.’
Mr Tucker said WA and Perth were always his home – and they will continue to be.
The party leader, who only received 98 primary votes, was elected thanks to preference deals.
‘Daylight Saving Party have turned 0.2 per cent of the vote into a seat in the Upper House because of all the arrangements of preference deals,’ ABC election analyst Antony Green said.
‘To have a party elected from that level of vote in a region is just ridiculous.’
Another election analyst, William Bowe, previously argued this quirk was a ‘crowning absurdity’ of the WA electoral system and it was ‘unarguable that it needs to be reformed’.
DSP was one of six micro parties that hired infamous ‘preference whisperer’ Glenn Druery who organises complicated deals to get parties elected with few votes.
He is believed to charge a $50,000 ‘success fee’ for parties he manages to get elected.
The 36-year-old (left) is currently in Seattle where he works as a senior engineer for a US tech firm
DSP was founded by Mr Tucker back in 2016. Western Australia does not have daylight saving like NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.
Mr Tucker said as he was not a professional politician he brought a different, and much needed, perspective to parliament.
The ultramarathon runner vowed to work just as hard for the two million people who didn’t vote for him as the 98 who did.
Now that his unlikely election has actually happened, he will look at ways to expand his issue base beyond the one issue.
‘I’m certainly passionate about technology, health, recreation, Aboriginal welfare as well; so these will be topics and issues that will certainly be forefront of my mind as I look to work with the Government on the cross bench in the Upper House,’ he said.
WA has consistently rejected daylight savings at four referendums in 1975, 1984, 1992 and 2009, with the No vote getting 54.57 per cent at the last poll.