position of National President. In July 2021, Campbell Newman, the former Premier of Queensland and Leader of the Liberal National Party of Queensland, resigned from the LNP, stating the LNP candidate in the 2021 Stretton state by-election was "let down by a party and leadership that never stands up for anything". In August 2021, he announced he had joined the LDP to run as the party's lead Senate candidate in Queensland at the 2022 Australian federal election. On 16 October 2021, Quilty, Limbrick, and other opposition MPs were ejected from Victorian Parliament for refusing to disclose their vaccination status. After two weeks of exclusion, the MP's submitted their vaccination status on October 28, 2021, in order to return to parliament to oppose the legislative agenda of the government. On 23 November 2021, the LDP announced a preference deal with the United Australia Party in the upcoming Australian elections where each party would encourage its members to choose the other as their second preference. On 24 November 2021 Krystle Mitchell, an acting Senior Sergeant of the Victorian Police who resigned after speaking publicly against enforcing health orders, announced she would be running for Federal Senate with the Liberal Democrats as their second in Victoria. According to The Age, between November 2018 and November 2021, the Liberal Democratic Party's Legislative Council members voted with the Andrews Government's position 22.1% of the time, which was less than the opposition Coalition (28.9%). Due to changes in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and a subsequent objection to the party's name by the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democratic Party applied to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) to change its name to the Liberty and Democracy Party in February 2022 in order to remain registered. The party then withdrew the name change application on 22 March 2022. On 1 April 2022, the AEC gave notice to the party that it would consider deregistering the latter, giving one month for the party to appeal the notice. However, as the writs for the May federal election were issued the following week on 11 April, the party register then would be "frozen" and this meant the party was allowed to contest the election with its current name. On 8 April 2022, Senator Sam McMahon joined the party after defecting from the Country Liberal Party in January. This gave the federal parliamentary representation to the Liberal Democratic Party. McMahon would also