One Nation has gained an unexpected Senate seat in New South Wales, taking Pauline Hanson’s party to four members in the upper house – equalling its best-ever result in a federal election.
Warwick Stacey – a former member of the British army – has snagged the sixth Senate seat in NSW, and will join fellow new senator Tyron Whitten who was yesterday elected in Western Australia.
Labor and Liberal each won two seats in NSW, in the results announced on Friday morning, alongside Mehreen Faruqi for the Greens. Labor’s Tony Sheldon was elected first, alongside colleague and industry, innovation and science minister Tim Ayres, while Andrew Bragg was elected second ahead of fellow Liberal Jess Collins.
Faruqi was elected in position five, with Stacey in the sixth and final spot.
Stacey will join Hanson, Whitten, and the re-elected Malcolm Roberts in Queensland, taking the One Nation contingent to four in the Senate. That equals the party’s best result in the 2016 double dissolution election – where the amount of votes to win a Senate quota is lower– when they had four senators elected: Hanson, Roberts, Brian Burston and Rod Culleton.
Burston and Culleton would later quit One Nation over disputes with Hanson and the party.
Stacey’s bio on the One Nation website states he has a “lifetime of experience outside the political bubble”, citing policy priorities including limiting migration, supporting coal and nuclear energy, rejecting the net zero emissions target, and boosting local manufacturing.
A bio posted on social media by Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, the prominent monarchist group which endorsed him for the Senate, said Stacey had joined the British army and was later commissioned into the British army’s parachute regiment, later serving as as a troop commander with the Special Air Service Regiment.
The description states Stacey later served 10 years in the Australian Army Reserve, before working as a military consultant in the Middle East and India, including advising on ransom, kidnap and crisis events.
Information published on the Australian Army Research Centre states Stacey advised on more than 40 kidnap, extortion, piracy and related life-threatening incidents, and case managed dozens more. An alumni bio on the Sydney Grammar School website that appears to be written by Stacey says he speaks French, Arabic, Farsi, German and Spanish, and that his crisis management work had included dealing with kidnappings in Latin America.
The information about Stacey’s military record is not listed in his One Nation biography, but was corroborated by him on a podcast in March. He said he was born in Sydney, brought up in Victoria, and travelled to Europe “because of my interest in languages”.
“While I was there, I fell into the British army. So effectively, I spent eight years as a professional soldier in the British Army. I was commissioned into the parachute regiment, and I later served with 22 SAS,” Stacey told the podcast.
“After I left the army, I worked in the Middle East as a military contractor, and doing that was very interesting work.”
Stacey said he later started his own business in crisis management, which he claimed included work responding to extortion attempts as well as “Somali piracy”.
“I was a kidnap for ransom response consultant and advising clients on how to successfully resolve a kidnap, how to negotiate a ransom and to get the return of the victim,” he said.
Guardian Australia attempted to contact Stacey for comment. A One Nation source, who said Stacey was currently overseas for personal reasons, confirmed he had spent time in the British military and was involved in crisis management, but did not confirm the particulars.
Guardian Australia spoke to Stacey last month, at the ballot draw for the NSW Senate.
“Australia needs people to stand up, not to complain. If you complain, stand up. And I complain and I’m standing up. I love the challenge. It’s hard work, but I enjoy hard work,” he said.
Despite being drawn sixth on the ballot, Stacey said: “We are going to win anyway. I think the state of the nation and the sentiment and temper of the people are looking at a change.”
Additional reporting by Sarah Basford Canales and Luca Ittimani
