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Indian origin Australian pre-selected for New South Wales Senate seat
Sharma is the first Indian origin person from the liberal party to be elected as a federal senator in Australia
Dave Sharma / Image – aph.gov.au
Dave Sharma, an Indian-origin candidate from the Australian Liberal Party has been selected to occupy the New South Wales (NSW) senate seat, following resignation of the incumbent, Senator Marise Payne, who was Australia’s longest-serving female to hold the senate seat.
Sharma defeated Zed Seselja and Andrew Constance, in a contest determined by senior party members. Seselja placed third, while Sharma won the contest against Constance with a 251-206 vote.
Sharma will become the first person of Indian origin from the Liberal party to become a federal senator in Australia, a report stated. He was elected to the Australia’s House of Representatives in 2019 as the first person of Indian origin after winning the seat from Wentworth, NSW.
Congratulatory messages poured in from several quarters for Sharma, including one from opposition leader Peter Dutton. “Congratulations to Dave Sharma on securing the NSW Senate position left by the retirement of former Senator Marise Payne. I look forward to Dave joining the Liberal Party Senate team. Thank you to our brilliant candidates who ran for pre-selection,” Dutton posted on X, along with an official statement from his office.
“His diplomatic and foreign policy expertise and experience will lend considerable weight and wisdom to the public policy debate given the precarious circumstances in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific,” the statement read in part.
Sharma’s prior experience includes serving as Australian envoy to Israel from 2013 to 2017, as adviser to the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, and as political counselor at the Australian Embassy in Washington, US from 2006 to 2009.
Sharma was also awarded with the Australian Service Medal in 2000 for his peacekeeping duties in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea where he served as senior civilian adviser with a peacekeeping group.
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