Wayne Dropulich

Background Dropulich, a Perth-based civil engineer and mining project manager who formerly worked at Rio Tinto, conceived the idea to form his own political party with the help of friends in early 2013. The former gridiron player for the Australian representative team achieved the required 500 members for his Australian Sports Party to be eligible for party status by asking friends and acquaintances to join. Dropulich has said that he had been in interested in politics his whole life despite having never been a member of a political party. Following his initial election, he received criticism for his non-committal stance towards a range of political issues. Initially, Dropulich did not win a seat, but was elected to the Senate upon a recount of the ballots.

The Australian Electoral Commission admitted to losing a significant number of Western Australian Senate ballots prior to them being counted, which resulted in the election being referred to the High Court sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns. Dropulich spent 114 days as a senator-elect, until the High Court declared void the Western Australian Senate results on 18 February 2014.

Dropulich stood again for election on the Australian Sports Party ticket at the Western Australia special Senate election in 2014 but did not win a seat.