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NSW sends pro-gun Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm to Senate
By state political reporter Liz Foschia and Mhairi McClymont
David Leyonhjelm Photo: NSW Liberal Democrat Senator-elect David Leyonhjelm (Supplied: baronsp.com)
The man elected to take one of six Senate seats in New South Wales says allowing the general public to carry weapons is one way of curbing gun crime in western Sydney.
Voters in New South Wales have chosen Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm for the Senate after the party appeared in the top left hand corner of ballot papers.
The seldom-mentioned party gained 8.89 per cent of the initial vote allocation, ahead of the Greens' 7.77 per cent.
The party, which believes in social libertarianism, a free market economy and small government now joins a key group of minor party and independent senators set to hold the balance of power after July next year.
David Leyonhjelm is a former vet who runs an agribusiness consulting company in Sydney.
His biography says he has been a member of Young Labor, the Liberals and the Shooters Party since getting into politics in the early 1970's.
He left the Liberals because of John Howard's crackdown on guns following the Port Arthur Massacre, describing it as "a disgraceful attack on law-abiding citizens."
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He also says it is an "objective fact" that the Sandy Hook school massacre in the United States could have been avoided if teachers had been armed.
Mr Leyonhjelm says a new approach is needed to help tackle the spate of shootings in Sydney.
"What happens is that criminals don't know who's carrying a gun and they're very wary of using a gun themselves because they don't know who's going to shoot back at them," he said.
"In actual fact it's a massive deterrent. You don't make a safer society by taking the guns off the good guys and leaving the bad guys to have the guns."
Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos says he does not believe Tony Abbott will water down gun laws.
"I think if Tony Abbott were answering this question he would say we are not going to water down what we have done on gun laws, certainly not on the gun laws after Port Arthur," he said
"He's made it clear, and certainly in fact we have certain commitments how we stop the importation of guns to try and deal directly with the sort of problems the Liberal Democrat was talking about."
Votes gained in error
Mr Leyonhjelm accepts his party probably gained votes in error, with voters thinking they were choosing the Liberals.
The name has been raised as an issue before - in 2007 the Liberal Party objected and they ran as the Liberty and Democracy Party.
Mr Leyonhjelm the massively-long NSW senate ballot paper may also have pushed votes to the Liberal Democrats.