Court kills off Govt majority
AUSTRALIA: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull insists the business of government will continue, despite the High Court disqualifying two of his most senior ministers.
The court ruled that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash had been ineligible to stand for the 2016 election because they were citizens of a foreign power.
The decision means the government will need the support of at least one crossbench MP on the floor of parliament’s lower house for confidence, supply and any of its legislation.
The one bright note for the government was the return of Nationals senator Matt Canavan to cabinet as resources minister after the court ruled he was not disqualified for election.
‘‘The decision of the court today is clearly not the outcome we were hoping for but the business of government goes on,’’ the prime minister told reporters in Canberra.
A by-election for Joyce’s seat of New England will be held on December 2. Turnbull will assume the agriculture and water resources portfolio from Joyce.
The prime minister is due to fly out of Australia later on Saturday to attend the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba in Israel, and make a flying visit to Sri Lanka on the way back.
He did not indicate who would be acting prime minister in his absence.
The court also disqualified former Greens senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters and One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, but not independent Nick Xenophon.
Section 44 of Australia’s constitution bans anyone holding dual citizenship from sitting in parliament, in a section aimed at ensuring MPs do not hold split allegiances.
Joyce said the court’s ruling did not surprise him.
‘‘In my gut I thought this is the way it was going to go,’’ he told reporters in Tamworth.
Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek seized on the decision, saying the prime minister had been ‘‘reckless’’ in allowing Joyce and Senator Nash to retain their cabinet posts while the court decided their fate.
‘‘We now have a minority government with a hung parliament because Barnaby Joyce broke the law,’’ she said. - AAP