David Pocock’s supporters thronged the Hub Civic Quarter this morning for the official declaration of the former Wallaby and environmentalist’s election as the ACT’s first Independent senator.
David Molnar, Australian Electoral Officer for the ACT, stated that 23 ACT Senate candidates had nominated for the federal election held on 21 May.
“Following the distribution of preferences, two candidates were elected,” Mr Molnar said. “As required by section 283 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act, I now formally declare Katy Gallagher and David Pocock elected to serve in the Senate of the parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.”
- And he scores! David Pocock is new Senator (June 2022)
- David Pocock has his eye on the ball (May 2022)
“This is a huge honour to be elected by the community that I love, to serve them as a senator for the next three years,” Senator Pocock said. “It will be a huge challenge, but one that I’m looking forward to.”
He acknowledged his running mate Clare Doube, co-founder of proACT. He thanked his team for their “massive effort over the last six months”, putting in “a huge amount of hours”: particularly the booth captains on polling day, and the scrutineers who spent the last few weeks with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).
The new Senator also thanked the people of Canberra. “Thank you for putting your trust in me to do this to his job. It’s something I will put everything into, and I look to serve the ACT.”
Finally, he thanked the AEC.
“Having grown up in Zimbabwe, having the Australian Electoral Commission do what you do really allows us to have the democracy that we have,” Senator Pocock said. “I’m incredibly grateful to call Australia home.”
His family left Zimbabwe when the late dictator Robert Mugabe seized their farm at Gweru in 2001.
The AEC’s work was “a logistical exercise that I certainly can’t get my head around! It’s something that we should really value and strengthen to ensure we continue to have the kind of elections that we do have,” the newly minted Senator said.
