South Australian senator Lucy Gichuhi defects to Liberal Party

Malcolm Turnbull has pulled off a coup on the eve of Parliament’s return, coaxing independent senator Lucy Gichuhi to the Liberal Party.

Senator Gichuhi’s defection secures a vital upper house vote for the government.

The conservative leaning senator stood for Family First at the last election and entered the Parliament as a replacement for Bob Day after he was deemed ineligible by the High Court.

“I didn’t discover until i made my maiden speech and I thought, wow, I can't believe I am Liberal at the core,” Senator Gichuhi said when making the announcement on Twitter.

Senator Gichuhi was born in Kenya and migrated to Australia. She worked as an accountant and lawyer with the Women’s Legal Service before entering Parliament.

“Those values, freedom, enterprise, getting ahead, opportunity, they’re Liberal values and you embody them,” Prime Minister Turnbull said.

Labor sources played down the defection as merely formalising Senator Gichuhi's ties to the Coalition given she rarely votes against the government.