THE HON MARK DREYFUS QC MP
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
HIGH COURT EXPOSES GOVERNMENT COVER UP ON FAMILY FIRST
Today's High Court decision is a damning indictment of the Turnbull Government, and the desperate lengths this Prime Minister will go to, just to cling to power.
The High Court ruled today that former Family First Senator Bob Day was disqualified from being elected as a Senator because he had a financial interest in the lease of his taxpayer-funded Electorate Office to the Commonwealth, in breach of section 44(v) of the Australian Constitution.
The very deal that the Turnbull Government did with Mr Day to keep him onside, is the very thing that rendered him ineligible.
The Government was told this arrangement was improper as early as February 2014, when the Department of Finance warned then Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson that:
Finance has concerns about how such a transaction might be perceived
The Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann was alerted to the situation on 29 December 2015 but he did nothing.
It was not until August 2016 that the Government could no longer ignore the mounting pressure, and was finally forced to take action against Bob Day.
Malcolm Turnbull turned a blind eye to doubts about Bob Days eligibility to be a Senator because he wanted Mr Days vote to get his regressive legislation through the Senate.
Mr Turnbull sold out his principles on marriage equality, climate change and just about everything else to become Prime Minister, and he sold out the Senate and the Constitution to hold onto the job.
This is just the latest sordid development in the sorry tale of a desperate Prime Minister trying to hold together his divided, dysfunctional and rapidly disintegrating Government.
WEDNESDAY, 5 APRIL 2017
