#citizenship7

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).