Duncan Peter James Spender (born 18 June 1975) is a former Australian politician. He briefly served as a

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in 2019, filling a

casual vacancy ''The Casual Vacancy'' is a novel written by British author J. K. Rowling, published worldwide by the Little, Brown Book Group on 27 September 2012. It was Rowling's first publication since the ''Harry Potter'' series, her first novel apart fr ...

caused by the resignation of Senator

David Leyonhjelm David Ean Leyonhjelm ( "lion-helm"; born 1 April 1952) is an Australian former politician. He was a Senator for New South Wales, representing the Liberal Democratic Party from 2014 to 2019. Having been elected at the 2013 federal election, he ...

of the Liberal Democrats. He had previously been Leyonhjelm's chief of staff.

Early life

Spender was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. He is the son of former Federal Court (and Industrial Court) judge,

Jeffrey Spender FBI Special agent Jeffrey Frank Spender is a fictional character in the American Fox television series ''The X-Files'', a science fiction show about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of alien existence. Spender (along with his ...

. Spender was a founding member of the

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

in 2001. Before his appointment to the Senate, Spender worked as Leyonhjelm's chief of staff and senior adviser, and as the party's treasurer.

Senate

Spender was appointed to the Senate on 20 March 2019, following Leyonhjelm's decision to resign to contest the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

at the

2019 New South Wales state election The 2019 New South Wales state election was held on Saturday 23 March 2019 to elect the 57th Parliament of New South Wales, including all 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly and 21 of the 42 seats in the Legislative Council. The election was ...

. As the

Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales, formally the Legislature of New South Wales, (definition of "The Legislature") is the bicameral legislative body of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). It consists of the Monarch, the New South Wa ...

was dissolved for the election, Spender's appointment was made by the

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

David Hurley David John Hurley (born 26 August 1953) is an Australian former senior officer in the Australian Army who served as the 27th governor-general of Australia from 2019 to 2024. He was previously the 38th governor of New South Wales from 2014 to ...

, with the appointment to be endorsed by the parliament in its next session. This occurred on 8 May 2019. Spender's seat was for a term that ended on 30 June 2019. He sat in the Senate for just two days, and Senate Estimates for two days. He was a candidate at the

2019 Australian federal election The 2019 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 18 May 2019, to elect members of the 46th Parliament of Australia. The election had been called following the dissolution of the 45th Parliament as elected at the 2016 double dissol ...

, but was not successful, ending the LDP's representation in the Senate.

Post-politics

In November 2019 Spender was appointed CEO of the Multicultural Council of Tasmania. Spender unsuccessfully ran as a candidate in the

2022 Hobart City Council election The 2022 Hobart City Council election was held in October 2022 to elect a lord mayor, deputy lord mayor and 12 councillors to the City of Hobart. The election was held as part of the statewide local elections in Tasmania, Australia. Anna Reyn ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spender, Duncan 1975 births Living people Politicians from Brisbane Members of the Australian Senate for New South Wales Liberal Democratic Party members of the Parliament of Australia