Wallaby great David Pocock wins election

We’d grown accustomed to the combative David Pocock stealing balls at the breakdown, but the Australia great is now succeeding in the political arena, having won election to the senate of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) as an independent. It is the first time in history an independent has won a senate seat in the territory.

Pocock, who has 83 Wallaby caps to his name, is a renowned conservationist and when announcing his run for the senate, explained his choice to go at it as an independent rather than joining a party was because he wanted individual-led politics intended to serve the people of Canberra rather than a party.

Upon being declared, Pocock sent out a tweet saying: “Thank you to everyone who put their trust in me to represent you. It is an incredible honour to be able to serve a community I love.

“Our campaign aimed to make politics about people. We built a policy platform off the back of thousands of conversations about the things that matter.

“We kept it positive. We talked about issues and the ideas for the future we want and it clearly resonated.

“I am committed to being accessible and accountable to Canberrans.”

Pocock joins the Labor part’s finance minister, Katy Gallagher, as one of  two upper-house representatives for the territory.

In 2014 – while playing for the Brumbies – Pocock and six others were charged for a protest in which they chained themselves to diggers at the Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek Mine for ten hours. In 2015 he also famously trained with ‘rhino guards’ in Zimbabwe, spending time with the Malilangwe scouts who look after endangered rhinos.

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