Introduction
Dr Dennis Jensen (born 28 February 1962 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a former Australian politician. He was elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the 9 October 2004 federal election for the Division of Tangney, Western Australia, for the Liberal Party. He is known for his views as a climate change denier.
Jensen lost Liberal preselection in Tangney for the 2016 federal election and unsuccessfully ran as an independent in the 2016 election.
Education
He was educated at RMIT University, Melbourne University and Monash University, from where he has a PhD in materials science. He worked at the CSIRO as a scientist and was also an air traffic controller and a defence analyst before entering politics.
Politics
He was the Liberal candidate for the Division of Corio, Victoria at the 1998 election.
In 2006, Dr 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 denier 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 climate change denier became national when he and four government colleagues disagreed with others of their party in a dissenting committee report regarding climate change.
Dr 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 affected by European colonisation to "get over it." He was one of six Liberal MPs (including fellow West Australian MPs Wilson Tuckey, Luke Simpkins and the late Don Randall as well as Sophie Mirabella and the late Alby Schultz) to leave the house (or boycott entirely) 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. Announced on 3 April 2016, it was revealed he had written an unpublished book that included graphic sex scenes, titled "The Skywarriors" (released as an eBook on Amazon 12 April 2016). Jensen labelled it "dirty tricks" and an "absolute smear campaign". Former party state director Ben Morton won preselection.