Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On page 15 of the West Australian today, journalist Andrew Probyn, under the headline ‘Jensen may sit as independent if dumped by Liberals’, reported the following:

Party strategists believe Federal Liberal MP Dennis Jensen is considering quitting the party and sitting on the crossbenches as an independent if he loses endorsement for the blue-ribbon Perth seat of Tangney.

Dr Jensen, the only sitting WA Liberal MP to face a preselection challenge, yesterday refused to comment …

Mr Speaker, this is clearly not the point. In fact, I did make a comment to Probyn, both on the telephone and by email. Last night at 6.04 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, I sent the following email to Probyn and to his editor, Brett McCarthy:

Andrew,

Further to our phone conversation today, I would like to restate the following. I am proud to be the Liberal member for Tangney. I look forward to contesting the next federal election as the Liberal candidate for Tangney and I look forward to serving another term as the Liberal member for Tangney after winning that election. Under the Liberal Party rules, I am unable to make any further comment on the preselection, as has been explained to you several times, and I will not respond to rumours from anonymous sources who lack the courage to stand by their words. Perhaps they are the same sources cited by your newspaper earlier this year on the preselection issue with information which all turned out to be false. This is not a refusal to comment, as you suggested in your article published in the West last Saturday, and I would strongly dispute any suggestion that I have been in any way evasive on these questions.

Regards,

Dennis Jensen.

If Andrew Probyn wishes to report in future that I have no comment, he will be correct as I have directed my office never to deal with Probyn in future.

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