Interesting point to consider - Senator Payman got elected almost entirely from "Above the Line" votes - ie votes to the Labor Party ticket. Individually (ie "below the line") she got 1681 votes. There were 5 W.A. Senate candidate who got more "below the line" votes (ie to them personally, not their party) than Senator Payman but were not elected. Check it out from the official source: https://results.aec.gov.au/27966/Website/SenateStateFirstPrefs-27966-WA.htm
So, should in this situation where the person decides to leave the party, should the Senate position be owned by the Party, the individual, the next highest individually-scoring person, our should the count be redone with the defecting person eliminated (which would almost certainly leave the Party's next candidate as the replacement)?
PS I know that current Law means that the Individual "owns" the position.
