Representative Ben Small Contact information

Benjamin John Small (born 11 June 1988) is an Australian politician. He was selected to serve as a Senator for Western Australia, representing the Liberal Party, to fill a casual vacancy following Mathias Cormann ’s resignation. His first term lasted from November 2020 until his April 2022 resignation, and he resumed his term in May after being nominated to replace himself. Small was unsuccessful in his re-election bid in the 2022 federal election and his term as senator concluded on 30 June 2022. He was elected as the member for Forrest at the 2025 federal election.

Small studied nautical science, marine operations, and business management. He worked in marine transport and logistics for several energy and resource companies, with his holdings in those criticised as a potential conflict of interest. Before becoming a senator, he was active in grassroots politics, and unsuccessfully attempted to enter parliament at the 2016 election. Ideologically, he was considered a member of the National Right faction of the parliamentary Liberal Party.

Small was born on 11 June 1988 in Perth, but grew up in the Goldfields–Esperance region, and later in Bunbury. His father was a New Zealand-born mine manager living in Australia as a permanent resident and his mother was an Australian citizen. Small attended Adam Road Primary School and then Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School. In 2009, he graduated from the Australian Maritime College (based at the University of Tasmania) with an Advanced Diploma of Applied Science in Nautical Science, followed by a Bachelor of Applied Science in Maritime Operations in 2012. He later obtained a Master of Business Administration from the University of Canberra.

From 2005 until 2015, Small was a skipper, trainee officer, and committee member for Bunbury Sea Rescue. From 2009 to 2019, Small volunteered with St John Ambulance Australia: first as an ambulance driver and officer, and later as a development officer. As part of the latter role, he helped deliver training to local services in Timor L’este.

After graduating with his Bachelor of Applied Science, Small worked as a chief officer and operations manager for Farstad Shipping and then as a marine operations manager at Woodside Energy. He has also co-owned Small’s Bar in Eaton (a suburb of Bunbury) since 2017.

In 2012, Small joined the Liberal Party. He served as the vice-president of the party’s Bunbury branch from 2013 to 2015, and was president from 2015 to 2017. In 2016, Small challenged the incumbent member for Forrest, Nola Marino, for preselection to be the Liberal Party candidate for the seat at that year’s federal election. Small was backed by former member for Forrest Geoff Prosser. However, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull opposed Small’s challenge and wrote a letter of support for Marino. Small lost the preselection vote 51–16. He served as president of the party’s Forrest division from 2017 until his Senate nomination.

Mathias Cormann (then serving as finance minister) announced his retirement from politics in July 2020 to run for the office of Secretary-General of the OECD. Cormann resigned from the Senate on 6 November 2020, triggering a casual vacancy to be filled by a Western Australian Liberal candidate. Small was selected by the Liberal Party’s Western Australian branch at a meeting the following day, beating former state minister Albert Jacob who was seen as too sympathetic to religious conservatives. He was formally appointed by the Parliament of Western Australia on 25 November 2020, sworn into the Senate on 30 November 2020, and made his first speech on 3 February 2021. Small’s shares in several mining and energy companies were labelled a potential conflict of interest.