Dave Sharma has won pre-selection for the Senate seat vacated by Australia’s longest-serving female Senator Marise Payne.
With this win Dave will become the first person of Indian-origin from the Liberal party to become a Federal Senator in Australia. He was also the first person of Indian-origin to be elected to Australia’s House of Representatives when he won the seat of Wentworth, NSW, in 2019.
Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton congratulated Dave on winning the contest which had a fairly large number of candidates put their hats in the ring.
Dave is a former Member of Parliament, Ambassador and company director. He is a law graduate of the University of Cambridge, has chaired and worked with a number of publicly-listed technology companies, and was chair of Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties and the Foreign Affairs and Aid Subcommittee.
Dave was a career diplomat prior to entering Parliament. He was Australia’s Ambassador to Israel from 2013-2017 and also had postings in Washington DC and Papua New Guinea. He was awarded an Australian Service Medal for his peacekeeping duties in Bougainville.
Dave studied at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with first-class honours in Law. He also has a Master of Arts from Cambridge and a Master of Arts (International Relations) from Deakin University.
Known as a strategic thinker, Dave has high-level experience in national security, trade, international relations, public policy, and technology and innovation.
Former Foreign Minister Marise Payne (2018-2022) resigned from the Senate on 30th September after a long innings in politics.
She was also the Minister for Women in the Scott Morrison government and Minister for Defence in the Turnbull government. Ms Payne was first appointed to the Senate in 1997 and has been Australia’s longest serving female Senator.
People of Indian origin account for more than 3% of Australia’s population and Indians are among the largest and fastest growing migrant communities in Australia.
Till the time of this pre-selection there was not a single person of Indian origin from the Liberal party in the Federal Parliament. The ruling Labour Government has two Indian-origin MPs.
