Ousted Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck has refrained from criticising those who effectively ended his career by bumping him down the party senate ticket.
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Mr Colbeck’s 14-year stint as a Tasmanian senator officially came to an end on Wednesday, when he failed to retain his seat.
But instead of blaming party preselectors who placed the then-Tourism Minister in fifth place on the ticket, Mr Colbeck said he was "enormously proud" to have represented Tasmania and the Liberal party.
In a lengthy statement released on Wednesday, Mr Colbeck said he “unfortunately don't have the numbers to continue the great privilege of representing Tasmania in the Senate”.
The Devonport-based Mr Colbeck was the second last candidate to be eliminated from the vote count, with his vote exhausting before that of One Nation candidate Kate McCulloch; who fell 273 votes short of toppling Greens Senator Nick McKim.
He secured 13,474 below the line votes, comfortably the most of any Liberal candidate, following a grassroots campaign designed to bolster his chances of re-election.
Mr Colbeck paid tribute to those who voted for him below the line, and singled out those who had mounted the re-election campaign.
“It is truly humbling to have that sort of public support. It is often not easy to air your political views so publicly and I thank them very much,” he said.
Mr Colbeck also thanked his family for riding the “waves and troughs” of his political career.
It’s unclear whether the former state Liberal Party president will return to the party in an internal role, or put his hand up as a Liberal candidate in the 2018 state election.
Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz gave a “huge thank you” to the work Mr Colbeck had done over a long period of time and said he would be sad to see him leave the senate.
Senator Abetz deflected questions about whether bumping Mr Colbeck down the Liberal ticket was the right decision, saying the order was a matter for the party’s organisation and the 65 preselectors.
The election losses of Mr Colbeck and Braddon MHR Brett Whiteley means there is no Liberal MP based on the North-West Coast, with Senator Abetz saying the party would hold discussions to ensure every Tasmanian, irrespective of where they lived, would be well represented by the state’s four Liberal senators.
“We will determine all those matters in due course now that we know what the result is, we had been desperately hoping that Richard Colbeck would be re-elected. That has now regrettably not occurred,” Senator Abetz said.