Section 44 is highlighted on the form each candidate must complete to nominate, so they should only be versed in reading comprehension.
That being said, the subsection itself is a relic of a White Australia past, back when there was no Australian citizenship and the intention was to exclude non-Europeans. As for it’s current interpretation, I find it absurd as it effectively relies upon the citizenship law of other nations to determine the eligibility of an Australian (federal) politician. I’d vote to change it in a referendum, although I doubt its success.
We still don’t know when we’ll see an end to this absurdity, where the people who write the laws for the rest of us to obey are incapable of observing the most fundamental law of all, the constitution.
Exactly!
“It’s amusing,” says Sydney University constitutional scholar Anne Twomey, “but it’s not a crisis.” How so? “Is it threatening anything fundamental in our constitutional or governmental systems? No. There’s no underlying constitutional principle involved. If you comply with the law, there’s not a problem.”
If they comply … the issue has been those MPs who have done the wrong thing, including kept quiet when knowing they’re ineligible (in addition to not doing the proper due diligence before nominating in the first place), and so some of the statements from the gov’t look very much like double standards.
Four Corners tonight; the vultures/hyenas are circling Turnbull… are they oblivious to the reality that they’ve caused the problems? Would they rather be leaders of the LNP in opposition instead of in gov’t?
Mr Kennett, for one, says Mr Turnbull has been far too tolerant of those on his own side who won’t play as part of the team.
“He’s paying the price for that tolerance, but at some stage even he must realise … that this sort of division is unacceptable.”
Mr Kennett says those who don’t want to be part of the team should leave the party or the members should throw them out. However the membership of the party is now far more conservative than the leadership and there are real threats emerging that a good deal of them may well leave the party — particularly in NSW.
It looks like conservatives want to split from the ‘Liberal’ party.
the only way i see this finishing is a new election. the real question is how will it be called.
will turnbull call it? doubt it
will the GG step in - also dount it
will the government lose a vote of confidence , and though this shorten becomes PM? he than gors straight to the polls to “legitimise” his government? this is the most likley scenario i think
Jacqui Lambie could be the next to go. Her father was born in Scotland. She is waiting for advice from the UK if she is a British citizen, if she is she said she will resign.
No.
A new election could just return another bunch of foreigners/multinationals.
Why would Turnbull be so stupid?
I bloody hope not; that would mean the GG is also an idiot.
Not likely, and Labor have significantly less seats in the House of Reps, so a Labor gov’t won’t happen until the next election, plus Labor are happy to keep going until then, with the public blaming the LNP for this anarchy (remember Labor’s minority gov’t was punished for Abbott’s trouble-making).
So it turns out that the new Senator was booted from One Nation. I’m hearing that Pauline wanted him to step down so Roberts could come back in, and he just walked off.
Amazing. Why the FUCK does 20% of my state want to vote for this shitshow?
People are ignorant, misguided, and a lot of that is because they don’t pay much attention to politics (or perhaps the media they’re choosing to consume has a certain bias).
Most of the PHON vote is just a protest, but like Trump we’ll all be paying for those simplistic votes for anyone that says whatever people want to hear.
Very frustrating, especially the LNP are now effectively supporting PHON (and like previous times, it’ll backfire on them).
I just worked out that residents in the two cities in North West Tassie are likely to have 3 elections coming up in the next 6 months.
Devonport will likely have a Mayoral election as current Mayor Steve Martin will take Jacqui Lambie’s seat in the Senate as he was second on the ticket there. A by-election will be held in Braddon also if Justine Keay loses her seat by the High Court which is sounding increasingly likely now and there is a State Election due in March also.
In Burnie, their Mayor has quit to run for State Parliament in the March election and they will also have the Braddon by-election and the State Election.
Looks like there’s going to be a lot of advertising coming up and a lot of people who don’t understand the tiers of government getting confused.
Someone on Insiders said that this whole crisis could’ve been avoided had Malcolm just audited the Parliament after Ludlam had admitted to being a dual citizen. That would’ve cleared out all of the duals in one fell swoop and meant that Turnbull could’ve come out of the crisis looking like an honourable and strong leader.
Instead we’ve got this ridiculous situation whereby senators and MPs are slowly fessing up over the course of months, ensuring that this crisis dogs Malcolm for as long as possible and allowing this scandal to continue well on into the new year, when it’s likely Malcolm may have to call an election to have a hope of sorting out this mess.
This really is eroding confidence in the parliamentary system and I think a lot of Australians are deeply disappointed here that there hasn’t been more leadership displayed by the Prime Minister.
So Jacqui is gone from Tasmania and talk yesterday was that she would throw her hat in the ring for the State election coming up but she has apparently said on radio this morning that she’s ruling that one out but hasn’t ruled out running for the Braddon by-election if Justine Keay is ousted. Could be interesting, Brett Whiteley the former member did nothing and has said he’d likely run again. Justine seems to have gone silent since being elected so I think Braddon voters would give Jacqui a chance in the lower house.
Labor hopes to make the race a referendum on the Turnbull government - a referendum on the now politically toxic NBN. A vote on the same-sex marriage betrayal some within the Coalition would have Turnbull undertake. A chance for voters to send a message to Canberra about anything and everything from flat wages growth, to the abolition of Sunday penalty rates, climate change and soaring energy costs, and any other grievance.
And so now the losing “no” campaigners demanding watering-down of anti-discrimination laws are not only going against the public will they were so insistent was with them, but are helping to put in risk the government’s majority in the House of Reps.
it all comes down to one thing - a 1 seat majority. Mal knows the libs are deeply unpopular (look at the polls) and by having say 10 by elections in 1 day could swing the government to the ALP. mal doesn’t want that obviously so he’s dragging us though this