Ex-ALP senator joins Libs

LIBERAL Senator Eric Abetz has revealed that he invited former Labor Senator Joe Bullock to join the Tasmanian division of the Liberal Party.

The former WA senator has moved to Launceston.

“I have known Joe for more than 40 years and he is an incredibly decent man who has dedicated his life in the service of his beliefs and others,” Senator Abetz said.

“We are lucky to have him in both Tasmania and in the Liberal Party.

“A fine unionist and former senator, I’m pleased that he accepted my invitation to join the Liberal Party where he will find that he is a natural fit within the best home of mainstream values in Australia.”

Mr Bullock, with the ALP for 39 years, sat in the Senate from 2014 but quit Labor in 2016 over the issue of same-sex marriage and its platform to compel representatives to vote for samesex marriage from 2019.

Liberal state director Sam McQuestin said it was not the party’s policy to comment on the membership of the party.

Mr Bullock told the ABC he was not intending to run for Parliament again.

Labor frontbencher Brendan O’Connor said Mr Bullock had perhaps been on “a long journey” towards the Liberal Party and had “always been quite conservative”.

Mr Bullock, 63, said he felt “lonely and isolated” in the ALP.