Leonard William Harris (born 22 September 1943), Australian politician, was the only One Nation Party representative to gain a seat in the Australian Parliament, as a Senator from the state of Queensland. He took his seat in September 1999, after a successful constitutional challenge to the election in October 1998 of Heather Hill , on the basis that she was a citizen of the United Kingdom and thus ineligible for election to the Australian Parliament.
Harris was born in Brisbane and was a self-employed businessman and gold miner before being chosen as the number two Senate candidate for One Nation at the 1998 election.
Harris was not as controversial as Pauline Hanson, One Nation's founder, and was generally held to have made little impact as a Senator. He came briefly to prominence during the 2003 debate on the legislative reforms to tertiary education, proposed by federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson. After initially promising he would vote against the legislation, Harris later changed his mind and allowed the reform package to pass, much to the annoyance of student organisations.
By the 2004 election One Nation was largely dead, and Harris was expected to struggle to be re-elected. With a drastic fall in the One Nation vote nationally, he lost his seat, polling only 0.2 of a quota. His term will expire on 30 June, 2005.
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