A United Australia Party (UAP) candidate has won a seat in the Senate and will represent Victorian constituents in the Australian federal parliament.
Following the declaration of the vote count in Victoria on June 20, Ralph Babet won the Senate seat against the incumbent Liberal Senator Greg Mirabella, who only took office in February after his predecessor Scott Ryan resigned.
Babet, also known as Deej Babet, operates a real estate business in Melbourne with his brother, who also ran as a House of Representative candidate for the UAP in the electorate of Bruce.
On social media, Babet has been highly critical of Victoria’s lockdown policy and left-leaning issues raised by several media outlets.
After learning of the election results, Babet expressed his gratitude to Victorian constituents and promised to work hard on their behalf.
“I would like to thank the people of Victoria for having faith and confidence in me. I pledge today, to the thousands of Victorians that voted for me and the United Australia Party, that we have a strong resolve not to let them down,” Babet said in comments obtained by The Epoch Times.
“The policies the United Australia Party stood for during the campaign have been vindicated by my election.”
The newly elected Senator also called on the federal Labor government to address over a trillion dollars of debt and work together with the UAP to prevent rising interest rate hikes from causing many Australians to default on their mortgages.
Speaking of Babet’s victory, UAP founder Clive Palmer said his new senator would represent the interests of hardworking Australians in the Senate.
“The United Australia Party is committed to holding Labor and the Liberals accountable for their actions and adding positively to the national debate for a better democracy for all,'' he said.
In addition, Palmer announced that his party would field candidates in all the seats at the Victorian state election in November.
Meanwhile, Mirabella said he was disappointed at not being able to continue pursuing policies on sovereign self-reliance, energy, manufacturing and security that he had raised earlier.
“As an organisation, we must frankly and honestly reflect on how we can promote our values to a broad nationwide constituency.”
Also elected to the Senate in Victoria alongside Babet were Sarah Henderson from the Liberal party of Australia, Bridget McKenzie from the Nationals, Linda White and Jana Stewart from Labor and Lidia Thorpe from the Greens.
As the election results in other states were declared, the Greens took a Senate seat from Labor in New South Wales (NSW), while the Liberals lost a seat to Labor in Western Australia (WA).
In NSW, Liberals Marise Payne and Jim Molan and Labor’s Deb O'Neill and Jenny McAllister were re-elected. The other two new faces to the Senate are Ross Cadell from the Nationals and David Shoebridge from the Greens, who was promoted from the NSW parliament.
In WA, incumbent Senators Michaelia Cash and Dean Smith from the Liberals, Sue Lines from Labor, Glenn Sterle and Dorinda Cox from the Greens were all re-elected. Meanwhile, Labor candidate Fatima Payman, the 27-year-old Afghan refugee, won a seat at the expense of the Liberals.
Also, on June 20, the Australian Electoral Commission announced nine House of Representative seats, leaving 22 of the 151 representative positions undeclared.
