Len Harris

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Leonard William Harris (born 22 September 1943), was an Australian politician who was the only One Nation Party representative to gain a seat in the Australian Parliament as a Senator from the state of Queensland. He took his seat in September 1999, after a successful challenge to the election in October 1998 of Heather Hill, on the basis that although a naturalised Australian, she had not renounced her childhood United Kingdom citizenship and was thus ineligible to sit in the Australian Parliament.

[edit] Political career

Harris was born in Brisbane and was a self-employed businessman and gold miner prior to being chosen as the number two Senate candidate for One Nation at the 1998 election.

Harris was not as controversial as Pauline Hanson, One Nation's founder, and was generally held to have made little impact as a Senator. He came briefly to prominence during the 2003 debate on the legislative reforms to tertiary education, proposed by federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson. After initially indicating he would vote against the legislation, Harris later changed his mind and allowed the reform package to pass, much to the annoyance of student organisations.

By the time of the 2004 election One Nation was seriously in decline, and Harris was expected to struggle to retain his seat. With a drastic fall in the One Nation vote nationally, he lost his seat, polling only 0.2 of a quota. His term expired on 30 June 2005.

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