MARK DREYFUS
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
SENATOR DON FARRELL
SHADOW SPECIAL MINISTER OF STATE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SPORT
SHADOW MINISTER FOR TOURISM
SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA
COURT OF DISPUTED RETURNS
The Court of Disputed Returns has today found the party led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison committed electoral fraud.
The former Director of the Victorian Liberal Party, now a senior adviser to the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, has been given six weeks to challenge the Court's finding that the Liberal Party committed an illegal practice in the seats of Kooyong and Chisholm by trying to "mislead or deceive" voters with fraudulent signs.
And yet the standards of the Morrison Government are so low, and Mr Morrison's own relationship with the truth is so tenuous, that Mr Morrison is calling today's decision a win for the Liberal Party.
This is yet another extraordinary failure of leadership and judgement by Scott Morrison. As the Leader, he is responsible and, as always, he is saying nothing to see here.
Mr Morrison and his colleagues can take no comfort from the fact that the Court found that the Liberal Party's potentially unlawful conduct did not affect the election result. Whats relevant here is the conduct of the Liberal Party.
It is now clear the tactics employed by the Liberal Party in this election went well beyond the accepted bounds of a vigorously contested election campaign especially in the Divisions of Chisholm and Kooyong.
The Chinese-language signs used by the Liberal Party in those election contests were clearly designed to look like official Australian Electoral Commission voting instructions for the purpose of misleading voters into voting for the Liberal Party.
TUESDAY, 24 DECEMBER 2019
