Dennis Jensen


Dennis Geoffrey Jensen is a former Australian politician. He was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2004 federal election, winning the Division of Tangney for the Liberal Party. Jensen lost Liberal preselection for the 2016 federal election, and subsequently resigned from the party to stand as an independent. In August 2017 he joined the fledgling Australian Conservatives party. Jensen has a PhD in materials science from Monash University, and before entering politics worked as a CSIRO researcher. He is known for questioning the anthropogenic causation of climate change.

Early life

Jensen was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was educated at RMIT University, the University of Melbourne and Monash University, from where he has a PhD in materials science. He worked at the CSIRO as a research scientist and for the Department of Defence as a defence analyst before entering politics.

Politics

Jensen was the Liberal candidate for the Division of Corio, Victoria at the 1998 election.
In 2006, Jensen lost his preselection for Tangney for the 2007 federal election, but won it back with the support of the state executive and prime minister John Howard. He lost preselection again for the 2010 election, but once again the state executive intervened and restored him as Liberal candidate.
Dr Jensen is a sceptic concerning human-induced global warming and, on behalf of the Lavoisier Group, organised the release of a book entitled Nine Facts About Climate Change by former mining CEO Ray Evans. In February 2007 during a Parliamentary sitting, Jensen quoted the then IPCC vice chairman Yuri Izrael, who had stated that "there is no proven link between human activity and global warming".
His reputation as a sceptic on anthropogenic causation of global warming became national when he and four government colleagues disagreed with others of their party in a dissenting committee report regarding climate change.
Jensen boycotted Parliament on the day that the formal apology to the Stolen Generations was made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. He further courted controversy by telling Australian Indigenous people claiming to be affected by European colonisation over 200 years ago to "get over it." He was one of six Liberal MPs to leave the house in protest to the apology to the Stolen Generations.
He is opposed to same-sex marriage in Australia.

Lost Liberal pre-selection

Jensen lost Liberal preselection in Tangney for the 2016 federal election. It was revealed he had written a technothriller, falsely portrayed as a work of erotic fiction, named "The Skywarriors" in which Indonesia invades Australia. Jensen labelled it "dirty tricks" and an "absolute smear campaign". Former party state director Ben Morton won preselection.
In August 2017, Jensen sent an email to former Liberal colleagues, saying he had joined the Australian Conservatives party started by Cory Bernardi, and urging them to follow him.