John Madigan

...the degree to which man can influence the change of climate, well I don’t believe the jury is in on that yet. For all the people of the world, scientists who say it is, there’s probably an equal body who says it isn’t.

Due to a double dissolution of parliament in 2016, Madigan did not get to serve his full term in parliament. The Manufacturing and Farming party supported Madigan and Mark George as senate candidates for Victoria in the 2016 federal election.

Madigan was not re-elected, gaining a mere 0.15% of the total Senate vote in Victoria. John Madigan's Manufacturing and Farming Party was voluntarily deregistered by the Australian Electoral Commission on 13 September 2016.

Madigan has campaigned against wind turbines, chairing the 2015 Select Committee on Wind Turbines, advocating the removal of government incentives from the industry, and promoting the idea of "wind turbine syndrome". As of 2011, Madigan's chief of staff is Brendan Gullifer, a journalist and writer who has published articles against wind power.

Madigan served as vice-president of the Victorian DLP from 2008 to 2009 and was elected to the Senate at the 2010 election. Madigan resigned from the DLP and became an independent Senator on 4 September 2014, citing long-term internal party tensions.

Madigan invited British climate change denier Christopher Monckton to Australia for a speaking tour in 2012. The booking at Ballarat was made by the Democratic Labour Party and was controversial causing the principal of St Patrick's College to say "The hiring of the college pavilion to the DLP in no way indicates support, tacit or otherwise, for the views of (Lord) Monckton, the DLP or the Climate Sceptics Party."

Madigan won the sixth and last Victorian Senate seat at the 2010 federal election. He took office on 1 July 2011 as the first "DLP" senator from Victoria since Frank McManus and Jack Little, who were both defeated at the double-dissolution election in 1974. Preference counts indicated that the primary DLP vote of 2.3 percent (75,000 votes) in Victoria reached the 14.3 percent quota required by gaining One Nation, Christian Democratic and Building Australia preferences to edge out Steve Fielding of the Family First Party with a 0.2 percent lead and thus gained their preferences. When the Australian Sex Party candidate was excluded, the DLP gained Liberal Democratic Party preferences, overtaking the third Liberal/National candidate and gaining their preferences to win the last seat.

Madigan took his seat in the Senate on 1 July 2011. The then Labor government held 31 seats, eight short of a majority, with the Greens holding nine seats, a sole balance of power position, therefore Madigan's vote was unlikely to be a decider in a Senate division because the Greens bloc paired with either Labor or the coalition was enough to win a division in the 2011–14 Senate composition.

Madigan describes himself as "unashamedly pro-life". As a representative of the DLP, he opposed legislation on same-sex marriage; the sale of public infrastructure; the implementation of a carbon tax (stating "We're not in favour of a carbon tax because we believe it's a tax on people and a tax on life"); and the limiting of weekend trading hours. He addressed the Inaugural Jack Kane Dinner in July 2011, where he advocated Chifley-style protectionist economics.

Born into a Catholic family, Madigan belonged to a youth group run by the National Civic Council founder, B.A. Santamaria, in Melbourne. Madigan was a blacksmith and boilermaker from 1983 to 2011, self-employed in his own engineering workshop in Hepburn Springs, Victoria. He has an apprenticeship in Structural Steel Fabrication from Newport TAFE. He lives in Ballarat and is married with two children.

John Joseph Madigan (born 21 July 1966) is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), before resigning from the party and becoming an independent in September 2014. Madigan launched the John Madigan's Manufacturing and Farming Party in 2015. He was elected to the Australian Senate with 2.3 percent of the primary vote in Victoria at the 2010 federal election, to serve a six-year term from July 2011. He failed to be re-elected at the 2016 double dissolution election, and the Manufacturing and Farming Party was voluntarily deregistered on 13 September 2016. Madigan joined the Australian Country Party in September 2016.