Zed Seselja wouldn’t be human if he didn’t allow himself a little moment as he was sworn-in as the ACT’s new Liberal Senator on Tuesday.
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He has served a political apprenticeship longer than most; nine years in the unglamorous surrounds of the ACT Legislative Assembly opposition benches.
With six of those years as his party’s leader, two hard fought election campaigns, the occasional media storm and finally a divisive pre-selection showdown, no-one could say Senator Seselja’s path to those famous red benches has been an easy one.
The new Senator’s parents, who have seen their family go from penniless Croation migrants to federal parliament in one generation, might likewise have enjoyed that moment of pride as they sat in the Senate’s public gallery on Tuesday and watched their son take his oath of office.
All up six senators were sworn in after parliament was declared open, the first being former NSW Labor general secretary Sam Dastyari, followed by Labor’s new Victorian senator Mehmet Tillem.
The pair replaced Matt Thistlethwaite and David Feeney, who both moved to the House of Representatives at the September election.
The four senators for the ACT and Northern Territory followed, including the first indigenous woman in the Senate, Nova Peris.
The former Olympian replaced Trish Crossin as Labor’s senator for the NT in controversial circumstances, with former prime minister Julia Gillard using a ‘‘captain’s pick’’ to bring Senator Peris to parliament. Also sworn in was Labor's Kate Lundy for the ACT, Liberal NT senator Nigel Scullion.
Settling into his new Parliament House digs, Senator Seselja said he was reflecting on his new membership of an exclusive club; those who have served in Australia’s federal parliament.
“In the two chambers, I think it's been 1200 since federation, so a great honour,” he said.
The man from Tuggeranong said he had only brought close family to the swearing-in and had left the big crowds for Wednesday’s maiden speech.
“We just invited Mum and Dad, [wife] Roz and the kids and everyone else will come tomorrow for the speech,” he said.
“Dad wrote me an email of congratulations this morning that was very heartfelt.
“When you come from Croatia to Australia with nothing and your son gets to be a member of the federal parliament, they see what a wonderful country this is that in one generation that can happen.”
But once the big moments have been savoured, it’s down to the daily grind of political life.
Senator Seselja remains an ambitious politician but in the big house, he says, it is important not to try to do much, too soon.
“As a government backbencher ... I assume that I’ll be on a number of committees and that will be a big part of my workload, so I’ll be working to make that as effective as I can," he said.
“Obviously I’ve been on committees my whole nine years in the Assembly,”
“In the chamber, well I’ve had a lot of practice debating in chambers and I want to be a contributor.
“It’ll take a little while because there’s a pecking order, ministers go first and that sort of thing, and I understand that.
“But there should be reasonable opportunities.”