Ben Dawkins succeeded Alannah MacTiernan as a member for the South West Region on 20 March 2023.
20 Facts About Ben Dawkins
1.
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On 29 February 2024, Dawkins joined Pauline Hanson's One Nation party but resigned from the party on 19 December of the same year, to serve the remainder of his term as an independent.
3.
Ben Dawkins was born in Subiaco, Western Australia, on 13 August 1971, to Roger Letts Ben Dawkins and Penelope Isabel Muecke.
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Ben Dawkins is the nephew of John Dawkins, who was federal treasurer in the early 1990s.
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Ben Dawkins attended Rosalie Primary School, Forrestdale Primary School, Nannup District High School, and Distance Education Centre.
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Ben Dawkins then graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Economics, Murdoch University with a Bachelor of Laws, and Edith Cowan University with a Graduate Diploma in Business.
7.
Ben Dawkins was fifth placed on Labor's South West Region ticket at the 2021 Western Australian state election.
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Ben Dawkins pleaded guilty to 42 of the charges on 17 February 2023, and the remaining charge was dropped.
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Ben Dawkins subsequently got the guilty pleas for seven of the charges overturned, after which prosecutors dropped those charges.
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Ben Dawkins was still considered guilty of 35 charges and on 6 June 2023, Dawkins was given a 10-month community-based order and a $2,000 fine.
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Ben Dawkins was expelled from the Labor Party on 24 April 2023.
12.
Ben Dawkins criticised the party for sanctioning him before the court had ruled on his case.
13.
Ben Dawkins criticised unionists, saying "they are bullying industrial activists akin to extreme vegans and their activities are beyond the law, not publicly funded as such and therefore un-regulatable".
14.
Ben Dawkins criticised the government's COVID-19 vaccination mandates for violating personal freedoms and said that proposed development reforms were an "overreach".
15.
On 29 February 2024, Pauline Hanson announced that Ben Dawkins had joined Pauline Hanson's One Nation and would contest the 2025 state election for the party.
16.
However, it was announced in September 2024 that he would not be preselected to stand for One Nation, with One Nation WA leader Rod Caddies stating that Ben Dawkins had not "lived up to the professionalism of what I would expect".
17.
On 5 February 2025, Ben Dawkins announced that he had changed his name by deed poll to Austin Letts Trump, shortening his new first name to Aussie.
18.
Ben Dawkins cited the name change as part of a political protest against public election funding in the lead up to the 2025 state election, and explained that he was an admirer of "the other Trump".
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Ben Dawkins had previously declared admiration for Donald Trump while addressing state parliament two months prior, stating that "Trump truth serum" needed to be "imported" to Western Australia.
20.
Hanson said the name change was "a joke" and suggested it would not garner Ben Dawkins votes considering his lack of "real policies".