The techies who ran for office in the 2019 federal election

Australians went to the polls again on May 18th, 2019, and even though the inventor of the internet Malcolm Turnbull (citation needed) is no longer in the politics game, plenty of candidates with tech backgrounds are running this year.

We rounded-up a list of some the candidates running for a lower house seat that stem from the tech world.

If there's anyone you think we missed, get in touch with us here.

Sonny Susilo

Party: Christian Democratic Party

Electorate: Barton

Susilo has worked at Dicker Data as a pre-sales specialist since March, focusing on APC, Dell and Lenovo. He's running with Fred Nile's Christian Democratic Party in the Sydney seat of Barton, going up against shadow minister for families and social services Linda Burney.

Mark Ellis

Party: Liberal Democrats

Electorate: Farrer

Liberal Democrat candidate Mark Ellis is a computer engineer that's worked for the likes of Telstra and IBM, as well as the Department of Defence and Transgrid.

David Lyon

Party: United Australia Party

Electorate: Mackellar

Lyon is a C++ software developer who has founded several tech companies in Australia and overseas. According to his bio, he worked on high-speed rail business cases which his technology recommendations being implemented in Sydney trains.

Wayne Connolly

Party: United Australia Party

Electorate: Goldstein

Connolly is an avid start-up investor with a background in telco and IT. He's taking on prominent Liberal MP Tim Wilson.

Vaughan Williams

Party: Pauline Hanson's One Nation

Electorate: Bendigo

Williams is an IT veteran who is currently the general manager Bendigo reseller PC Reboot, part of Outside The Box IT Solutions. He's running for Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

Thor Prohaska

Party: Independent

Electorate: Dickson

Prohaska has more than 30 years of experience in business analysis, software testing, technical writing and sales under his belt. He is currently an account rep at Sky Payroll, and has worked at a handful of other technology companies. He's up against home affairs minister Peter Dutton in the key seat of Dickson.

Christian Julius

Party: United Australia Party

Electorate: Griffith

Julius is a software dev and IT technician currently working as a senior developer at the University of Queensland. He's also a passionate advocate for a better NBN, according to his bio. He'll be running in the seat held by Labor's Terri Butler, shadow minister for youth Australians and youth affairs.

Jake Schoermer

Party: The Greens

Electorate: Ryan

Schoermer is a full-stack IT developer and start-up founder who was inspired to enter politics after high school when he fixed a city councillor's PC. iTnews published a profile on Schoermer, detailing how he runs his campaign on the open source CiviCRM campaign system powered by a Raspberry Pi contact centre.

Alan Quinn

Party: The Greens

Electorate: McPherson

Quinn is an IT professional and software developer who has worked in retail and hospitality. He currently develops educational software on the Gold Coast.

Shyamal Reddy

Party: United Australia Party

Electorate: Rankin

Reddy boasts 20 years of experience as a systems engineer but has worked as a helpdesk team leader, operations manager and managed services consultant. He's currently MD and lead application packager at JV Technology.

Daniel Bryar

Party: The Greens

Electorate: Wide Bay

Bryar has run a construction company on the Sunshine Coast since late last year but prior to that, spent more than a decade at Fuji Xerox, most recently as ICT manager of its Sunshiine Coast business centre. 

Gary Davies

Party: Science Party

Electorate: Perth

Davies is a software engineer specialising in mobile app development who has worked on apps to help Australians' understanding of the environment. He is currently a senior engineer for mobile apps at logistics company CBH Group.

Greg De Maine

Party: United Australia Party

Electorate: Canberra

De Maine is an ICT engineer currently working as a consultant for the federal government. He's also worked in tech roles for Thales, Telstra and Huawei.

Leanne Castley

Party: Liberal

Electorate: Fenner

Castley has worked for Citadel Group since 2011, a company well-versed in working with the government on ICT projects. She is currently a project coordinator, in addition to being a country musician.