Nationals candidate and Keep the Sheep campaigner Paul Brown loses Federal Senate bid

Keep the Sheep campaigner and Nationals candidate Paul Brown said he has no regrets in running for the Senate, saying “life goes on”, while remaining optimistic about the future of agriculture.

The Australian Electoral Commission announced the WA Senate results for the 2025 Federal election on Thursday, in which Mr Brown failed to claim a seat.

The two newly-elected WA senators are Labor’s Ellie Whiteaker and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation’s Tyron Whitten.

Liberals Slade Brockman and Matt O’Sullivan, Labor’s Varun Ghosh and The Greens’ Jordan Steele-John have retained their positions in the Senate.

Mr Brown said he was not surprised by the loss which he described as a “very long shot” for The Nationals to win a seat in the Senate, but he went into the election with his “eyes wide open”.

“We always had a strong campaign on the back of the Keep the Sheep campaign and our Nationals campaign, particularly with Mia Davies for Bullwinkle,” he said.

“We haven’t had a Nationals senator for some 45, 50 years, so we always knew it was going to be a long shot.

“But we wanted to put our best foot forward and make sure that regional WA had a true regional voice at the table.

“It’s just a pity that people from across WA didn’t support the Nationals and myself and our bid to have a candidate that would be a strong supporter of regional WA.”

Despite the looming live sheep export ban, Mr Brown is positive about WA’s “bright” agricultural future and opportunities.

Mr Brown said he would like to see an extension of the live export ban from 2028 to 2034 to provide a “softer landing” and time to adjust for WA sheep farmers, acknowledging the repeal of the legislation is unlikely.

“We have seen the devastating consequences of that legislation being born out right now with farmers leaving the industry; truckies selling off their fleets, shearers leaving the industry, a very much reduced wool clip, and putting our merino and wool sector in WA at risk,” he said.

Mr Brown said he could not see himself running in an election again, whether it be State or Federal, but it is a “long way in the future”.

“I can’t see there being a need for me, but I think that the Nationals have now toured a State election and the Federal election have proven their brand, and that I would hope that someone else would be standing up,” he said.

He said agriculture organisations and the wider agriculture industry needed to rethink and hold a conversation about who they wanted representing them.

“I don’t think there’s anyone at the moment in the political landscape, at a Federal level in WA, that will stand up solely for the regions and agriculture ahead of the party,” Mr Brown said.

The AEC will formally declare the results of the WA Senate poll on June 3.