Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, an Invergordon farmer, won the final seat in the Northern Victoria upper house race for One Nation after preferences were distributed on Wednesday.
She joins Jaclyn Symes and Wendy Lovell, re-elected Labor and Liberal representatives respectively, and Gaelle Broad from the Nationals and Georgie Purcell from the Animal Justice Party as the five upper house members for Northern Victoria.
The resigning Mark Gepp, Tania Maxwell from Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party and the Liberal Democrats’ Tim Quilty will not sit in the next parliament.
Ms Tyrrell said she was “absolutely honoured” to represent Northern Victoria, a region that stretches from Mildura to Wangaratta and encompasses about 500,000 people.
She joins a busy crossbench, with 11 of the 40 upper house members from neither of the major parties, meaning Labor will need to secure six additional votes to pass legislation.
Ms Tyrrell said while she was sceptical of the Labor Government, she would address each piece of legislation on its merits.
“In order for anything to work they need to go to the crossbench and I want to talk to everyone and stop legislation which isn’t in the best interests of Victorians,” she said.
Stopping the few remaining coronavirus vaccine mandates was something she would focus on, as well as trying to lower energy prices.
But the biggest issues Ms Tyrrell wishes to tackle surround water.
Federal Government moves to reintroduce buybacks had concerned irrigators in the area, Ms Tyrrell said, and she wanted to ensure water stayed in the region.
“We need to work with the Federal Government to get them to work in the best interests of our irrigators,” she said.
Ms Tyrrell, who said she had Wiradjuri heritage, said she didn’t currently support the Indigenous Voice to Parliament model but was open to changing her mind depending on what was put forward by the Federal Government.
“I don’t need to be separated into a different group. We already have people elected who have Aboriginal backgrounds,” she said.
“I’m very open-minded and open to listening to everyone’s opinions, but at the moment I don’t see a point to it.”
She also said she believed she was able to represent all people in the region, including the diverse region of Shepparton, despite being a member of Pauline Hanson’s party, whose comments around immigrants — especially Muslims — and First Nations people have been divisive in her 20 years in the national spotlight.
“Absolutely I can represent the region. We stand for unity, not division,” she said.
Ms Tyrrell said the upper house was “all-new territory” but after covering far more kilometres than she had in her lower-house runs over the past 10 years she felt she was “ready” to head to parliament.
