Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP )
Which political party did David Leyonhjelm belong to from 2005 to 2006?
David Leyonhjelm David Ean Leyonhjelm ( lion-helm ; born 1 April 1952 ) is an Australian former politician . He was a Senator for New South Wales , representing the Liberal Democratic Party from 2014 to 2019 . Having been elected at the 2013 federal election , he took office on 1 July 2014 , and was re-elected in the 2016 full Senate election . He resigned from the Senate in March 2019 to stand for the Legislative Council at the 2019 New South Wales state election , but failed to be elected . Before being elected to federal parliament , Leyonhjelm worked as a veterinarian and then as an agribusiness consultant . He also writes columns for several Australian publications , with a concentration on rural issues . Personal life and business career . David Leyonhjelm was born in Nhill in the Wimmera , in western Victoria and was raised in Heywood , on the dairy farm of his parents Bryan and Jean Leyonhjelm . The family is of Swedish noble origin ; the Leijonhielm barony was granted in 1719 . He was the oldest of four children , and as a teenager trapped rabbits and worked in a shoe shop to help support his family . When he was 15 , his parents separated , and he lived with his mother in Melbourne , where he attended Dandenong High School . Leyonhjelm later won a scholarship to study veterinary science at the University of Melbourne , studying alongside Denis Napthine , a future Premier of Victoria . He has since completed Bachelor of Laws and Master of Business Administration degrees at Macquarie University . After gaining his initial degree , he worked as a practising veterinarian for a time , both in Australia and overseas , and later became involved in marketing and management roles in the animal health industry . In 1989 , Leyonhjelm was a founding director of Baron Strategic Services , an agribusiness consultancy firm with which he remains involved . He later served as director of the federally funded Gene Technology Information Unit ( GTIU ) , which was established by the Keating Government to offer accurate and unbiased advice about the new gene technologies . Leyonhjelm lives with his wife , Amanda , in Sydney , but also owns a rural property in Hargraves , a locality near Mudgee in the Central West region of NSW . A shooting enthusiast , he is the president of the Sydney-based Inner West Hunters Club , and takes pleasure in his success in winning his grade in New South Wales for several years , shooting metallic silhouette targets with small-bore pistols . Also a former secretary of the Farm Writers Association of New South Wales , Leyonhjelm had a column in Rural Business magazine for 20 years . He also wrote a column , Agribuzz , for Fairfax Rural Media ( formerly Rural Press ) , and for Business Spectator and writes regularly in The Australian Financial Review . Early political activities . Politically , Leyonhjelm was a member of Young Labor during the 1970s with the goal of ending compulsory military conscription . He later joined the Liberal Party , but resigned his membership in 1996 in protest against the stricter firearm laws introduced by John Howard . Leyonhjelm had been a member of the Shooters Party since 1992 , and was chair for a period of five years . Having fallen out with its founder , John Tingle , he later left the party in protest at what he perceived as its increasing social conservatism and status as a single issue party . In 2005 , after leaving the Shooters Party , Leyonhjelm became involved with the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP ) , which then contested the New South Wales elections as the Outdoor Recreation Party . As secretary of the LDP , he helped the party become federally registered and helped with the campaign for the 2007 , 2010 , and 2013 federal elections . Drawing 0.10 percent of the first-preference vote , Leyonhjelm unsuccessfully contested the Division of Bennelong in 2007 for the LDP , which ran as the Liberty and Democracy Party , after the Australian Electoral Commission initially refused to register it under its original name due to the use of the word Liberal . For the Outdoor Recreation Party , he unsuccessfully contested the 2010 Penrith state by-election , drawing 1.87 percent of the first-preference vote , and then was listed first on the partys group ticket at the 2011 state election , which drew 0.75 percent as a group . Parliament . Running for the Australian Senate in New South Wales at the 2013 federal election , Leyonhjelm was elected to the fifth of six vacancies . The Liberal Democrats polled 3.91 percent of the first-preference vote based on five states , receiving 523,831 primary votes above the line in NSW . The result for the LDP in New South Wales was partly attributed to the donkey vote , because the party occupied the first position on a ballot paper with a record number of candidates . Confusion with the Liberal Party of Australia and other similarly-named parties was also thought to have played a part , with a writer in The Age suggesting Leyonhjelm was probably the only senator elected because people mistook his party for another . 2014 . Leyonhjelm assumed his seat on 1 July 2014 , and was sworn in on 7 July , making his maiden speech during the same week . In the first sitting week , he successfully moved to have the governments Clean Energy ( Income Tax Rates and Other Amendments ) Bill considered by itself , instead of being grouped with other legislation . The bill , which subsequently failed to pass , would have repealed personal income tax cuts that were to be introduced as compensation for the carbon tax . In September 2014 , he announced that Helen Dale , a writer and lawyer who won the Miles Franklin Award in 1995 ( as Helen Demidenko ) , would be a senior adviser on policy matters . In November 2014 , Leyonhjelm introduced as a private members bill a Freedom to Marry Bill , which would allow same-sex marriage . Leyonhjelm was criticised following the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis when he argued that Australians should be allowed greater access to weapons for self defence . He put the view that the outcome may have been different if at least some citizens were allowed to be armed . 2015 . In August 2015 Leyonhjelm negotiated a deal to include a 12-month sunset clause on the temporary ban on importing the Adler lever action shotgun . The Government imposed the ban in July , while it reviewed the technical specifications of weapons in the wake of the Martin Place Siege . The Federal Government has agreed to allow the importation of the shotgun , in exchange for support on migration laws . A week prior to the ban lapsing as a result of the sunset clause , the Government reimposed the ban . Leyonhjelm has been a vocal opponent of laws designed to reduce the consumption of cigarettes , and has accepted $55,000 in donations from tobacco company Philip Morris . Leyonhjelm submitted a private members bill to the Senate to repeal the ban on territories legalising euthanasia . The bill was voted down in the senate 36-34 . Leyonhjelm and Bob Day of the Family First Party announced their intention shortly after the 2013 election to vote as a bloc in the Senate on economic issues , but to vote separately on social issues . Day has since resigned from the Senate , but Leyonhjelm has stated he intends to form a new voting bloc with his successor from Family First , as well as Cory Bernardi from the Australian Conservatives . Leyonhjelm has since formed a bloc with Bernardi , United Australia Party Senator Brian Burston and independent Senator Fraser Anning , who left One Nation and has since been expelled from Katters Australian Party . Both Leyonhjelm and Day have long been members of the free market think tank Institute of Public Affairs ( IPA ) . 2016 . During the 2016 Australian federal election campaign , Leyonhjelm attracted criticism after he suggested womens sport was not interesting enough to receive government funding , in response to Labors proposal to increase the amount of womens sport broadcast on Australian television . Labor leader Bill Shorten responded , calling Leyonhjelm a stone age man . During the same campaign , the satirical television show The Chasers Election Desk parked a campervan across the road from Leyonhjelms house daubed in Wicked Campers slogans that Leyonhjelm had previously defended , with Leyonhjelms name replacing derogatory references to women in the original slogans . Leyonjhelm reacted by threatening to call the police and told the Chaser team to fuck off . He subsequently told womens rights activist Melinda Tankard Reist to STFU when she accused him of hypocrisy . Speaking to BBC News in November 2016 , Leyonhjelm questioned the motives and integrity of anti-poverty charity workers , particularly with regard to a conflict of interest in the continuation of their own employment as opposed to their elimination of poverty and thus their obsolescence : The people who work for those charities have their careers tied up in the continuation of that charitable work . If they were too successful and poverty was eliminated , they wouldnt have jobs anymore . They have a very long history in Australia of talking up poverty . Leyonhjelm wanted the government-funded age pension payment to be viewed as welfare and not an entitlement for taxpayers once they reach a certain age . He told ABC News : Taking the pension shouldnt be something you aspire to , it should be something you try to avoid because it signifies youre in a low income group – in other words youre poor or you know , close to poor , He also opposed the censorship of video games and criticised the Australian Classification Board claiming , How is it that adults are not trusted to make choices about video games , and yet they are allowed to vote? , and asked the government to leave video gamers alone . Destructoid called him the hero Australia deserves . 2017 . Soon after the January 2017 Melbourne car attack , in which a driver hit and killed six people and injured many others , Leyonhjelm posted to Twitter a link to a headline BREAKING : Its feared at least one pedestrian has been hit in the Bourke St Mall by a rogue car driving erratically . More Soon. , with the comment Probably one of those semi-automatic assault cars . Responding to calls for his resignation , Leyonhjelm suggested critics fill out an official complaint , posting a Hurt Feelings Complaint Form . 2018 . In 2018 , Leyonhjelm told Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young to fuck off and stop shagging men , during a debate of a bill moved by Katters Australian Party senator Fraser Anning to allow the importation of pepper spray , mace and tasers for womens self-defence . Leyonhjelm claimed that was in response to Hanson-Young saying women wouldnt need pepper spray if men werent rapists , and that his comment for her to fuck off was prompted by her approaching him after the debate and calling him a creep . He later made claims of Hanson-Youngs sexual promiscuity on national television , claiming he was responding appropriately to a statement which he said categorised all men as rapists . Leyonhjelm defended himself by claiming that he was calling out sexism and misandry . When challenged , Leyonhjelm pointed to an interview in which he claimed Hanson-Young accused all men of being rapists , although this was rejected by the senator . On 14 August 2018 , the Greens moved a motion in the Senate to censure Leyonhjelm for his remarks against Hanson-Young , which was passed by 30 votes to 28 . 2019 . On 7 January 2019 , Leyonhjelm announced that he intended to quit federal politics to contest the 2019 New South Wales state election on 23 March 2019 . He resigned from the Australian Senate on 1 March 2019 . He was the second Senator since the 2016 election to resign from Federal Parliament to contest a state election , following Nick Xenophons unsuccessful run at the 2018 South Australian state election . Leyonhjelms bid to win a place in the NSW Legislative Council was unsuccessful . In November , Senator Hanson-Young was awarded $120,000 in damages after winning a defamation case in the Federal Court against Leyonhjelm over interviews he gave following his stop shagging men comment in Parliament . The judge ruled that Leyonhjelm had acted with malice and intended to publicly shame Hanson-Young . 2020 . Leyonhjelm was due to pay Senator Hanson-Youngs legal costs and the associated settlement by the end of 2019 but chose not to do so as he was appealing against the defamation decision , partly on the ground of the implied constitutional freedom of political communication . The appeal was dismissed in March 2021 . In July 2020 , Leyonhjelm expressed dismay at the Australian publics response to increased use of governmental power during the Covid-19 pandemic , describing Australians as sheeple . Political views . Leyonhjelm has been described as a libertarian purist who wants government wound back to a minimal role in society . In interviews , he has stated that he was initially drawn towards socialism , but turned away from it after travelling to socialist countries in Africa and Eastern Europe and was later influenced by the writings of economist Milton Friedman . Along with Bob Day of the Family First Party , who was also elected to the Senate at the 2013 election , Leyonhjelm has been compared to Ron Paul , a former U.S . Representative and noted advocate of libertarian ideas . Their election has been associated with a rise in the popularity of libertarian and classical liberal ideas in Australia , with one commentator suggesting his election might spark a libertarian renaissance [ in Australia ] . In the 44th parliament , along with seventeen other crossbenchers ( including 10 Greens , independents and representatives from four other parties ) , the Liberal Democrats shared the balance of power in the Senate . Leyonhjelm has been described as the newly elected senator with perhaps the most clearly articulated and consistent views . He supported the repeal of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax and carbon tax , but opposed the Abbott Governments proposed paid parental leave and direct action on climate change schemes as bad in principle and a waste of taxpayers money , respectively . The LDPs position on climate change is that the scientific evidence is not yet compelling and that changes in human activity could realistically reverse those consequences , but the party would favour market-based options if the science is confirmed by further study . Notably , Leyonhjelm has proposed charging a fee for permanent residency in Australia as a way of discouraging people smuggling . He also supports same-sex marriage , the decriminalisation of marijuana and assisted suicide . In his Agribuzz column , he generally advocates deregulating the Australian agriculture industry , including removing barriers to free trade , genetically modified organisms and foreign ownership of Australian land . Leyonhjelm supports the removal of the words offend and insult from Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 , arguing that offence is always taken , not given . Upon being described as an angry white male for seeking to amend Section 18C , Leyonhjelm lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission , arguing that this is a breach of 18C . Books . - Freedoms Salesman : Collected Articles and Speeches by Australias Senator for Liberty , Melbourne : Wilkinson Publishing , 2017 . Essays . - Factory Farming Is Essential to Feed the World , in : Factory Farming , Debra A . Miller , ed. , Detroit : Greenhaven Press , a part of Gale , Cengage Learning , 2013 .