#citizenship8

[thedespatchbox]

In today’s Senate news...

Stephen Parry is indeed a dual citizen and has resigned, as both President of the Senate and a Senator - so if you thought that this “citizenship imbroglio” was over, you were sadly mistaken. So there will be plenty of drama coming our way in the next few weeks as the High Court will have to decide what to do with the results of the Tasmanian recount.  

Nick Xenophon has also, as he indicated earlier, resigned his position in the Senate in order to contest a seat in the SA election next year. The Nick Xenophon Team is no more, having changed their name to SA-Best Federal, so they now align more closely with their State branch. 

Xenophon’s resignation has created a casual vacancy, and so he shall be replaced by another member of his party, as appointed by the state parliament. Xenophon has advised the SA Premier Jay Weatherill to appoint Rex Patrick to the vacant position, but Tim Storer, who was the only candidate on the NXT SA Senate ticket who was not elected in 2016, has written the Premier a “private and confidential” letter, which we are all assuming asserts his rights to the seat. Constitutionally, he has literally zero rights to that seat, and Weatherill can appoint anyone he wants, as long as they’re a member of NXT/SA-Best when they take the seat. But again, I can assure you there will be more drama. 

[thedespatchbox]

Senator? More like dual-citizen...

Well. In news that is unbelievably ridiculous, President of the Senate, the Hon Stephen Parry has announced that in light of last week’s High Court decision, he might, maybe also be in breach of s44(i) of the Constitution. One has to wonder why Parry is only checking out his citizenship now, rather than 8 weeks ago with everyone else. I mean he can hardly claim he was unaware of the issue, especially given that as President of the Senate he was the one referring everyone else to the High Court. 

If he is ineligible, then there are lots of fun things about the Senate recount in Tasmania which may be of interest. 

He will likely be replaced by Liberal candidate Richard Colbeck. BUT because Parry was elected early in the count and this election is in TASMANIA, a recount with him excluded would likely result in the 12th elected Senator being One Nation’s Kate McCulloch rather than Greens’ Senator Nick McKim. This is because Tasmanians actually understand how the Senate ballot paper works and are far more likely to both vote below-the-line and fill in their own preferences. The other factor is that especially in a double-dissolution, the quota in Tasmania was the smallest in the country 26,090, (compare that with NSW-345,554, VIC-269,250 and even ACT-84,923), so a couple of hundred self-allocated preferences make a BIG difference. So, the High Court would then probably have to decide whether McKim is allowed to stay -(sensible given that the recount is only being called to determine who should replace Parry) OR whether McKim should be kicked out and McCulloch elected - (sensible given that the recount is how the election should have gone- as the ineligible candidate has been removed). 

The other question about this whole thing is if Senator Parry resigns his position as both President and Senator when he receives confirmation that he is a dual citizen, who will then refer him to the High Court so that he can be replaced?