{"id":29297,"date":"2026-06-11T09:49:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/29297\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T09:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:49:22","slug":"tasmanian-senator-wendy-askew-resigns-with-fellow-liberals-one-nation-eyeing-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/29297\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasmanian Senator Wendy Askew resigns with fellow Liberals, One Nation eyeing seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

The race is on for at least one Tasmanian Senate seat at the next election with Liberal incumbent Wendy Askew deciding to retire after a term and a half.<\/p>\n

Senator Askew’s decision to not recontest leaves a seat open for a new Liberal, as One Nation’s surge in popularity puts it in contention for up to two seats.<\/p>\n

A political analyst says it may not matter who replaces Senator Askew, with voters likely favouring parties over candidate names in the Senate, offering One Nation a good chance.<\/p>\n

Senator Askew was appointed in 2019, replacing her brother David Bushby in a casual vacancy in which the party gets to choose.<\/p>\n

She won the second spot on the Liberals’s Senate ticket in 2022 behind Senator Jonathon Duniam, beating out long-serving senator Eric Abetz who ultimately lost his seat.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the ABC, Senator Askew said with Liberal preselection now open she had decided not to nominate.<\/p>\n

“It is a genuine honour to have the privilege of representing the people of Tasmania in the Senate as a member of the Liberal Party,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Since my election in 2019 my focus has been, and will continue to be, on standing up for Tasmanians and advocating strongly for their interests.”\"Senator<\/p>\n

Wendy Askew previously worked as an adviser to state MP Sarah Courtney, who is tipped to be a candidate for Senator Askew’s seat. (
\n ABC News: Luke Bowden
\n )<\/p>\n

Senator Askew, who has another two years left in the Senate before the next election, said the federal Liberal team “remains united” in holding Labor to account.<\/p>\n

“At the next election Tasmanians will face a clear and important choice: continue down the current path, or support meaningful change in 2028,” she said.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands former Tasmanian Liberal minister Sarah Courtney will nominate for Liberal Senate preselection.<\/p>\n

One Nation likely to pick up one to two seats on current polling<\/p>\n

At the 2025 federal election the Liberals won two seats after receiving 1.65 quotas.<\/p>\n

Since then, One Nation has seen a surge in popularity, putting the party in line for one or even two Senate seats.<\/p>\n

Labor is seen as most likely to lose a seat to One Nation, currently holding three of them after Tammy Tyrrell joined the party<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Senator Tyrrell was elected as part of the Jacqui Lambie Network before going independent, and then joining Labor.<\/p>\n

Political analyst Kevin Bonham said the Liberal’s second Senate spot was also in danger of falling to One Nation.<\/p>\n

Dr Bonham said this swing was a greater issue than losing an incumbent candidate, most of whom he said will “have very little impact on the party vote”.<\/p>\n

“That’s got nothing to do with incumbents. Most incumbents are very low profile, and most of them not one person in 20 in the street could name them,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Bonham said most people vote on party lines, although there are exceptions for big names \u2014 like in the case of former Labor senator Lisa Singh who won a seat despite being placed fifth on the ticket.<\/p>\n

“You do get some votes from having name recognition, particularly if they are a little bit different and can pick up that below-the-line vote that they can bring to the ticket,” Dr Bonham said.<\/p>\n

“But most of the time the voting is for the party.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The race is on for at least one Tasmanian Senate seat at the next election with Liberal incumbent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,3965,1955,26591,26827,8438],"class_list":["post-29297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-liberal-party","tag-one-nation","tag-senate","tag-senate-seat","tag-wendy-askew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}