Massive price of Labor debacle

TAXPAYERS forked out $1.5 million in salaries and expenses to the four Labor MPs and one crossbencher who sat in Parliament for more than six months despite being ineligibe because of their dual citizenship.

The five ineligible MPs were each paid $109,000 in salaries alone since the High Court imposed strict new rules last October.

Labor insists it was following Australian Electoral Commission guidelines, which require candidates to take “reasonable steps to renounce foreign nationality” when it repeatedly refused to send its four MPs to the High Court.

But the High Court, in finding on Wednesday that Labor’s Katy Gallagher was ineligible, said an earlier decision handed down about Resources Minister Matt Canavan’s eligibility explicitly said that there was “no suggestion that a candidate who made a reasonable effort to comply with (section 44 of the Constitution) was thereby exempt from compliance with it”.

Since that decision, Senator Gallagher has been paid $108,500 in salary and accrued expenses of $82,900, based on the last available disclosures.

Taxpayers have forked out more than $387,000 in salary and expenses for Justine Keay, $322,000 for Susan Lamb and an estimated $332,500 for Josh Wilson.

All three Labor MPs resigned on Wednesday after the decision against Senator Gallagher because they had similar circumstances.