Which MP lost the most money in market turmoil?

The Australian politicians who have taken the hardest hits to their personal share portfolios after Donald Trump’s new tariffs sent global markets down the drain include several Coalition MPs, according to an analysis of public disclosure records by Crikey and Open Politics.

Minutes after Monday’s opening, the benchmark ASX 200 tumbled 6%, then bounced back slightly to a 4% drop, in a “bloodbath” resulting from major economies like China and the EU retaliating against the US president’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.

Thanks to parliamentary rules that require MPs and senators to declare their shares, we know many Australian politicians have invested in the sharemarket.

The rules don’t require them to say how much money they’ve invested — meaning we can’t know how much money they lost — but it’s possible to calculate how much the average price of the shares they invest in fell between Friday afternoon and Monday morning.

The biggest loser was Nationals MP David Gillespie, who has declared shares in 31 ASX-listed companies, including some held jointly or solely by his wife.

Gillespie’s entire portfolio lost an average of 5.66%, with some of his individual shares like South32 Limited dropping by as much as 10.32%.

Liberal-National Queensland Senator Paul Scarr was not far behind with an average share price reduction of 5.65%. The rest of the top five losers were Coalition politicians as well: Liberal MP Rick Wilson (-5.59%), Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey (-5.51%), and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce (-5.33%).

Labor MPs Graham Perrett (-4.78%) and Ged Kearney (-4.73%) placed sixth and seventh on the list.

Nationals MP Anne Webster lost 4.65%, Labor MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah lost 4.61%, and in tenth place, Liberal MP Bridget Archer lost 4.14%.

The losses were calculated by listing each share each MP had declared and comparing the closing price on Friday with the opening price on Monday, and then working out the average loss on their entire portfolio.

Some shares are held directly, while others are held via trusts or self-managed super funds.

Senators, unlike House members, do not need to declare shares owned by their spouses, so it’s possible some senators would have made it into the top 10 if the disclosure rules had been different.

Out of the crop of politicians elected to the 47th Parliament — the one that was prorogued on March 28 — 66 people, or about 29%, have declared they or their families own listed shares.

As of July last year, Coalition politicians had 54% of all declared shareholdings in Parliament, despite making up only 38% of elected members. Labor’s total of 171 holdings, or 40% of the total, may have been affected by a ban on ministers owning shares.

On Monday afternoon, Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ office circulated a piece of Treasury analysis that said the effect of Trump’s tariffs on the Australian economy would be “modest”, and that most of Australia’s “exposure to US tariffs” would come from reduced demand from important trade partners like China, Japan, South Korea and India.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the sharemarket drop was “concerning”.

“We do live in uncertain times, and we are concerned about the impact on global trade and the global economy. We’re seeing a considerable impact, negative impact on the stock market,” he told reporters on Monday.

“That impacts Australians, because superannuation funds have their shares there. So yes, we are concerned, and will continue to engage.”

Overnight, Trump threatened further tariffs on China, leading to more volatility on Wall Street. However, some analysts predicted the ASX would rebound slightly upon opening on Tuesday.

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