30 Facts About Gerard Rennick

Gerard Rennick was elected as a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland and sat with the Liberal Party in parliament, until resigning from the LNP in August 2024 to form the People First Party.

Gerard Rennick completed his education in Toowoomba at Downlands College, before moving to Brisbane, where he completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Queensland.

Gerard Rennick has a master's degree in taxation law from the University of Sydney and a master's degree in applied finance from the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.

Gerard Rennick has 25 years' experience in finance, both in Australia and overseas.

Gerard Rennick, a member of the National Right faction of the Liberal Party, was a Senate candidate for the LNP at the 2016 federal election, but failed to win a seat.

The ABC reported that Gerard Rennick had donated $35,000 to the LNP in the year before winning the third place on the party's Senate ticket for the 2019 federal election, a position that eventually saw him elected to a six-year term.

On 8 July 2023 at the LNP Annual Convention in Brisbane, Gerard Rennick lost pre-selection for the third position on the LNP's senate ticket for the 2025 federal election, after being narrowly defeated by Stuart Fraser, the party's treasurer.

Gerard Rennick resigned from the LNP on 25 August 2024 and announced his intention to create a new party named 'People First'.

Gerard Rennick officially began sitting as a member of the People First Party in September 2024.

Gerard Rennick has promoted the conspiracy theory that the Bureau of Meteorology is tampering with climate data to "perpetuate global warming hysteria", as part of a "global warming agenda".

Gerard Rennick has been viewed as a "right wing climate denialist", and was singled out by the ALP leader Anthony Albanese as someone "who thinks the Bureau of Meteorology is part of global conspiracy".

Gerard Rennick said his view was based on his experience in accounting, and had not sought a briefing from the Bureau over his concerns.

Gerard Rennick has shared misinformation from conspiracy websites, including WorldNetDaily to support his views.

Gerard Rennick proposed that the Kyoto carryover carbon credits should be used to support Australia's 2030 emissions target.

Gerard Rennick claimed that without anthropogenic carbon emissions, phytoplankton would absorb so much carbon from the atmosphere that it would "destroy our plant life", a hypothesis contradicted by the Earth's past history.

In November 2021, Gerard Rennick was one of five Liberal-aligned senators who voted against the government in support of the COVID-19 Vaccination Status Bill 2021, sponsored by One Nation.

In February 2022, Gerard Rennick attended the Convoy to Canberra protests.

Gerard Rennick has used his background in finance to advocate tax reform.

Gerard Rennick called for profits in Australia to be taxed at the same rate as profits of foreign owned entities.

Gerard Rennick stated this could fund cuts to both payroll tax and income tax.

Gerard Rennick called Labor's policy of providing free childcare to all three-year-olds in Australia a conspiracy "to strengthen the role the state has in raising a child at the expense of parents".

In September 2018 Gerard Rennick advocated closer ties with Russia because "they're part of the West; they drink, they're Christians, they play soccer, they're Caucasian".

Gerard Rennick raised doubts that Russia was behind the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the United Kingdom.

Gerard Rennick is a non-interventionist and has spoken out against regime change wars.

Gerard Rennick has said Australia should think about developing nuclear weapons to hinder aggression from China.

Gerard Rennick has compared Australia's immigration policy to farmers who "overstock [their] paddock", and has claimed that immigration was more damaging to Australia's environment than carbon pollution.

Gerard Rennick wanted a reduction in the number of temporary visa holders in Australia, who numbered over 2 million.

Gerard Rennick has been a long-term advocate of reforming the federation, of the government building and retaining profit making infrastructure such as dams, ports and electricity power plants, of sustainable immigration to ensure quality of life for all Australians, for higher taxes on profits sent offshore, and for universities to underwrite the costs of education.

Gerard Rennick opposed the closing of maternity wards by the state government in regional Queensland and has called on the state government to improve maternity health outcomes.

Gerard Rennick is opposed to the adoption of poker machines in the state of Queensland, and consequently accused the Labor state government of being "utterly incompetent and morally corrupt".