Ricky Muir motors into the Senate with less than 1% of primary vote
The Australian Motoring Enthusiast party's Ricky Muir has won a Victorian Senate seat with less than 1% of the primary vote.
Muir was handed the state's sixth upper house seat thanks to a complex system of preference flows, while the Greens' Janet Rice also picked up a seat.
Labor senators Gavin Marshall and Jacinta Collins were returned, as were Liberal senators Mitch Fifield and Scott Ryan.
Liberal senator Helen Kroger was unseated.
Eric Abetz, leader of the government in the Senate, paid tribute to the outgoing Kroger, whose Senate term expires next year.
"All Coalition senators regret that Senator Helen Kroger, their Senate whip, will not be joining them in the Senate after the 1st of July 2014," Abetz said in a statement.
Kroger had quickly established herself as a senator and was valued for her contribution to public policy, especially in foreign affairs, he said.
"Her support for the state of Israel is legendary, as is her questioning at Senate estimates on a range of foreign affairs issues," Abetz said.
Abetz congratulated the Australian Motoring Enthusiast party's Muir on winning the sixth spot.
Meanwhile, in South Australia, the Family First candidate Bob Day grabbed the last spot.
After the distribution of preferences on Tuesday, the Australian Electoral Commission said SA voters had also elected the two Liberal senators Corey Bernardi and Simon Birmingham and Labor's Penny Wong, along with Sarah Hanson-Young from the Greens and popular independent Nick Xenophon.
The big loser from the poll was the sitting Labor senator Don Farrell, who joins Kroger on the way out when the new Senate comes into effect in July.