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Gerard Rennick

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Senator
Gerard Rennick
Rennick in 2024
Leader of People First Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
10 September 2024
Preceded byOffice established
Senator for Queensland
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 July 2019
Personal details
Born (1970-11-05) 5 November 1970 (age 54)
Chinchilla, Queensland, Australia
Political partyPeople First (since 2024)
Other political
affiliations
Children3
Residence(s)Samford, Queensland[1]
Alma mater
Websitegerardrennick.com.au

Gerard Rennick (born 5 November 1970) is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for Queensland since July 2019. He was elected as a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland and sat with the Liberal Party in parliament,[2] until resigning from the party in 2024 to sit as an independent.[3] As of 10 September 2024, Rennick sits as a member of his party, the People First Party.[4]

Early life

[edit]

Rennick was born and raised on a property outside Chinchilla, on the Darling Downs.[5] In his youth he worked as a farmhand, fruit picker, bartender and pump attendant.[6]

He completed his education in Toowoomba at Downlands College, before moving to Brisbane, where he completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Queensland. He also has a master's degree in taxation law from the University of Sydney and a master's degree in applied finance from the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA).[6] He has 25 years’ experience in finance, both in Australia and overseas.[6] He is married with three children.[7]

Political career

[edit]

Rennick, a member of the National Right faction of the Liberal Party,[8] was a Senate candidate for the LNP at the 2016 federal election, but failed to win a seat. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that Rennick had donated $35,000 to the LNP in the year before winning the third place on the party's Senate ticket for the 2019 federal election, a position that eventually saw him elected to a six-year term. The LNP rejected as "offensive and ridiculous" any suggestion the donations played a role in his pre-selection, and highlighted the fact that some of their members self-funded their elections.[9]

During a speech on the Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct Bill 2019, he referred to Queensland Labor Senator Murray Watt as Labor's "chief yapping poodle."[10]

In an interview on Sky News Australia in 2020, Rennick spoke about government overreach in the "classroom and the bedroom" and compared it to a communist takeover by the bureaucracy. When asked to clarify, Rennick said: "there are ... groups within Australia, they are not Chinese groups, they are Australian groups, that seek to undermine our individual liberties and I think that is a greater threat to our sovereignty [than the Chinese government]."[11]

Prior to the 2020 Queensland state election, the Guardian Australia reported that Rennick had donated to anti-abortion group, Cherish Life, which, according to abortion services provider, Marie Stopes Australia, was conducting a high-profile campaign of disinformation and "blatant lies".[12]

On 8 July 2023 at the LNP Annual Convention in Brisbane, Rennick lost pre-selection for the third position on the LNP's senate ticket for the next federal election, after being narrowly defeated by Stuart Fraser, the party's treasurer.[13] He resigned from the LNP on 25 August 2024 and announced his attention to create a new party named 'People First'.[3][14] Rennick officially began sitting as a member of the People First Party in September 2024.[4]

Political positions

[edit]

Climate

[edit]

Rennick is critical of climate data. He has promoted the conspiracy theory that the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is tampering with climate data to "perpetuate global warming hysteria", as part of a "global warming agenda".[15][9] BOM has rejected these claims outright.[16]

He has been viewed as a "right wing climate denialist",[16] and was singled out by the ALP leader Anthony Albanese as someone "who thinks the Bureau of Meteorology is part of global conspiracy".[17] Senator Murray Watt described Rennick's BOM allegations as "nuts", adding that such allegations were sourced "from right-wing think tanks". Rennick said his view was based on his experience in accounting, and had not sought a briefing from the Bureau over his concerns.[18][19] He has shared misinformation from conspiracy websites, including WorldNetDaily to support his views.[20]

Rennick proposed that the Kyoto carryover carbon credits should be used to support Australia's 2030 emissions target.[21] Australia has been the only country in the world to attempt to use this form of emissions accounting,[22] and was widely criticised for attempting to do so.[23]

Rennick claimed that without anthropogenic carbon emissions, phytoplankton would absorb so much carbon from the atmosphere that it would "destroy our plant life", a hypothesis contradicted by the Earth's past history.[24]

COVID-19

[edit]

In 2021, The Guardian reported that federal health minister Greg Hunt had described some of Rennick's Facebook posts as containing "false information". While The Guardian did not disclose what the posts said, it described them as "casting doubt over the accuracy of PCR tests", and said that Rennick "questioned why Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) had not yet recommended use of ivermectin".[25]

In November 2021, Rennick was one of five Liberal-aligned senators who voted against the government in support of the COVID-19 Vaccination Status (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill 2021, sponsored by One Nation.[26][27]

In December 2021, Rennick's claims that COVID-19 vaccines amounted to "experimenting" on children, and his anti vaccine posts on Facebook, were rebutted by multiple health officials. The Chief Medical Officer of Australia, Dr Paul Kelly, said that the Pfizer vaccine is “worthwhile, safe and effective” for children aged five to 11. Head of the TGA, John Skerritt, said: "I reject the assertion that it’s nothing much for kids and doesn’t matter if they catch [Covid]." The Australian Medical Association vice-president, Chris Moy, told The Guardian that Rennick’s surveys of adverse events were “as far away from science as possible” because they “force one answer he wants”.[28]

In February 2022, Rennick attended the Convoy to Canberra protests.[29][30]

Superannuation

[edit]

On 13 November 2019, Rennick called superannuation a "cancer", saying: "Millions of dollars gets sucked out of the pockets of the battlers in the bush and sent to the blowhards in Sydney and Melbourne to manage, all for a small cost of around $37 billion a year in management fees." He said union-linked industry super funds were "laughing all the way to the bank" while no money was reinvested in regional areas. In the same speech he accused the Labor Party of selling regional Australia "down the toilet" during the Hawke-Keating era, through their globalist, privatisation agenda—selling off such government owned corporations as Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "Now regional Australia has to pay more for flying regionally than it costs to fly overseas ...The CBA, like every other bank in this country, became obsessed with housing rather than driving business and investment, especially in the regions."[31][32]

Tax reform

[edit]

Rennick has used his background in finance to advocate tax reform. He called for profits in Australia to be taxed at the same rate as profits of foreign owned entities. He stated this could fund cuts to both payroll tax (a state based tax) and income tax.[7]

Childcare

[edit]

He called Labor's policy of providing free childcare to all three-year-olds in Australia a conspiracy "to strengthen the role the state has in raising a child at the expense of parents".[33] Rennick's position is that "subject to financial considerations, if we can leave children at home with at least one parent, that's something worth striving for", but he suggested that "early childhood education is ... not the best way to invest in our future".[34]

Foreign relations

[edit]

In September 2018 Rennick advocated closer ties with Russia because "they're part of the West; they drink, they're Christians, they play soccer, they're Caucasian". Rennick has called for de-escalating tensions with Vladimir Putin and Russia: "They are a genuine superpower and it's not in the world's interest to have antagonistic relations with superpowers ... There's a bigger picture here and it is world peace."[35]

Rennick raised doubts that Russia was behind the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the United Kingdom.[34]

Rennick is a non-interventionist and has spoken out against regime change wars.[7]

Immigration

[edit]

Rennick has compared Australia's immigration policy to farmers who "overstock [their] paddock", and has claimed that immigration was more damaging to Australia's environment than carbon pollution. He also wanted a reduction in the number of temporary visa holders in Australia, who numbered over 2 million.[36][37]

Other positions

[edit]

Rennick has been a long-term advocate of reforming the federation, of the government building and retaining profit making infrastructure such as dams, ports and electricity power plants, of sustainable immigration to ensure quality of life for all Australians, for higher taxes on profits sent offshore, and for universities to underwrite the costs of education.[37]

Rennick opposed the closing of maternity wards by the state government in regional Queensland and has called on the state government to improve maternity health outcomes.[38][failed verification][31]

Rennick is opposed to the adoption of poker machines in the state of Queensland, and consequently accused the Labor state government of being "utterly incompetent and morally corrupt".[31]

He has spoken about having a constitutional convention to clearly define and separate the responsibilities of the Federal and State Governments in the federation: "It is time for COAG to hold a constitutional convention to clearly define and separate these responsibilities with proposed changes put to a referendum."[39]

References

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  1. ^ "Statement of registerable interests" (PDF). aph.gov.au. Parliament of Australia. 29 July 2019. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 August 2024.
  2. ^ "SA, WA and Qld Senate teams are finalised". NewsComAu. 18 June 2019. Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  3. ^ a b Beatty, Liam (25 August 2024). "LNP Senator Gerard Rennick quits party, to contest federal election as independent". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 12 September 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  4. ^ a b "People First Party- Parliamentary Handbook". Australian Parliament House handbook. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  5. ^ "Gerard Rennick". Liberal Party of Australia. 6 March 2019. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  6. ^ a b c "Senator Gerard Rennick". Senators and Members of the Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  7. ^ a b c Senator Gerard Rennick (10 September 2019). "FIRST SPEECH". Senate Hansard. Commonwealth of Australia: Senate. p. 1821. Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Retrieved 14 September 2019. Archived 12 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Massola, James (20 March 2021). "Who's who in the Liberals' left, right and centre factions?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  9. ^ a b Conifer, Dan (24 April 2019). "Controversial candidate won spot on Senate ticket after 12-month cash splash". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 19 May 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  10. ^ Senator Gerard Rennick (11 November 2019). "BILLS - Treasury Laws Amendment (Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct) Bill 2019 - Second Reading". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Commonwealth of Australia: Senate. Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Retrieved 29 November 2019. Led by their chief yapping poodle, Senator Watt, they hide in their Twittersphere safe space with an ever-decreasing band of zealots spouting bile, incapable of rational argument.
  11. ^ "'There's just as much to fear from communists within Canberra'". Sky News. 9 June 2020.
  12. ^ Smee, Ben (16 October 2020). "LNP senator and Broncos chairman back Queensland anti-abortion campaign containing 'baseless' claims". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  13. ^ Sakkal, Paul (7 July 2023). "Anti-vax Coalition MP Gerard Rennick dumped". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 9 July 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  14. ^ Wright, Shane (25 August 2024). "Queensland senator Gerard Rennick quits LNP for crossbench". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  15. ^ Remeikis, Amy; Taylor, Josh (15 January 2020). "'There is no link': the climate doubters within Scott Morrison's government". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 16 January 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  16. ^ a b Conifer, Dan (22 April 2019). "LNP Senate candidate accuses weather bureau of fudging data to suit 'global warming agenda'". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  17. ^ Sloan, Judith (30 June 2020). "Anthony Albanese's emissions olive branch comes with prickles". News Corporation. Archived from the original on 3 September 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Liberal senator doubles down on accusing BoM of changing records to fit climate agenda". SBS News. Archived from the original on 1 June 2021. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  19. ^ Parkinson, Giles (13 November 2019). "Falinski's litany of lies on climate and energy shows Coalition denial runs deep". RenewEconomy. Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  20. ^ Rennick, Gerard [@SenatorRennick] (17 October 2023). ""The paper argues that concentrations of CO2 and other supposed "greenhouse gases" in the atmosphere have virtually no effect on the earth's temperature" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Retrieved 18 October 2023 – via Twitter.
  21. ^ "Coalition heat rises over talk of dumping carry-over credits". The Australian. 7 December 2020.
  22. ^ Readfearn, Graham; Morton, Adam (22 October 2019). "Australia is the only country using carryover climate credits, officials admit". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  23. ^ O'Malley, Nick (8 December 2020). "What are Kyoto carryover credits and why do Australia's critics say they don't exist?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  24. ^ "Liberal senator tells CSIRO boss that net zero target will "destroy our plant life"". RenewEconomy. 29 October 2021. Archived from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
  25. ^ Hurst, Daniel (2 August 2021). "'Stick with the facts': Greg Hunt's plea to politicians after LNP senator's 'false' Facebook Covid posts". the Guardian. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  26. ^ "COVID-19 Vaccination Status (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill 2021". Senate Journals. Vol. 126. Commonwealth of Australia: Senate. 22 November 2021. Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. Archived 12 November 2024 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^ "Scott Morrison faces Senate revolt over Pauline Hanson bill". news.com.au. 22 November 2021. Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  28. ^ Karp, Paul (7 December 2021). "Liberal senator Gerard Rennick's vaccine claims condemned by health officials in Covid inquiry". The Guardian.
  29. ^ Radford, Antoinette (5 February 2022). "Thousands of protesters descend on Canberra's Parliament House to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 11 February 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  30. ^ "Rogue MP Craig Kelly signs anti-vax mandate protesters into Parliament House". 8 February 2022. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  31. ^ a b c Senator Gerard Rennick (13 November 2019). "STATEMENTS BY SENATORS - Regional Australia". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Commonwealth of Australia: Senate. Archived from the original on 12 November 2024. The next thing Keating did was introduce superannuation, and what a boon that has been for the bush—not! Superannuation has destroyed the income of people in the bush. Can you imagine if we went back, say, 40 years to when people used to get their pay in little yellow packets and some white-collared finance shark with their hair slicked back drove around all the country towns, pulling up in a sports car and taking 10 per cent of your income and telling you to come and see him when you turn 60 and he may or may not give it back to you depending on how good a strategy he had investing and risking your money? Why would you give this guy your money? You wouldn't. But, of course, that's exactly what happens every week. Millions of dollars gets sucked out of the pockets of the battlers in the bush and sent to the blowhards in Sydney and Melbourne to manage, all for a small cost of around $37 billion a year in management fees. That's great for creating jobs in the inner city and for Labor voters, but none of this money is ever reinvested in the bush, is it? No. The Hawke-Keating Labor government destroyed the bush with their reckless, neoliberal privatisation and centralised saving agenda. The industry funds are laughing all the way to the bank. The unions can't believe their luck. I'll be honest: the coalition sold out its personal responsibility values when it didn't stop this cancer called superannuation. ... Thirty years ago, my home town of Chinchilla had a maternity ward and no poker machines. Today it has poker machines and no maternity ward. There is no greater indictment of how utterly incompetent and morally bankrupt the Labor Party is than this statistic. The introduction of poker machines in Queensland by the so-called virtuous Goss government at the behest of unions was the start of the destruction of regional Queensland. As battlers in the bush became addicted to these dirty, stinking, one-armed, mechanical parasites, the royalties flowed to the corrupt Labor government. We never heard a word from corruption-busting Tony Fitzgerald about the destruction that gambling does to regional communities, did we? Archived 5 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine
  32. ^ Coughlan, Matt (13 November 2019). "Lib senator says superannuation a 'cancer'". Guardian News. Archived from the original on 13 November 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  33. ^ "Meet the Coalition candidate with controversial views on company tax, early education and Russia". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 21 April 2019. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  34. ^ a b Conifer, Dan (21 April 2019). "Coalition candidate Gerard Rennick floats 12 per cent company tax rate, suggests early education a conspiracy". AC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  35. ^ "Stop vilifying Russia: candidate". www.theaustralian.com.au. 26 September 2018. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  36. ^ Remeikis, Amy (10 September 2019). "LNP senator compares immigration to 'over stocking' paddocks – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  37. ^ a b "Senator Gerard Rennick". 2GB. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  38. ^ Sinnerton, Jackie (12 August 2018). "Maternity ward closure putting newborn babies at risk". Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  39. ^ "LNP senator says Australia's immigration policies like 'over stocking' paddocks". SBS News. Archived from the original on 11 September 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
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