DLP ouster move: bid to force John Madigan out of his Senate seat
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Version 0 of 1. The Democratic Labour Party has launched an audacious bid to remove John Madigan from his Senate seat, following his resignation from the party last week. The DLP has written to Alex Chernov, the governor of Victoria, and Stephen Parry, president of the Senate, to argue that Madigan should be forced to hand over his place in the Senate to a person of the DLP’s choosing. Paul Funnell, the DLP’s president, said the party had taken legal advice and would take the matter to the high court if the request was turned down. “This goes to the heart of the democratic process,” Funnell told Guardian Australia. “When people rock up to the election polling booth, they don’t know who the senator is, but they know who the political party is. “We’ve taken it to the umpire, who is the governor, but we will then look to take it further. This is something that is affecting the outcome of government in this country.” Funnell said the basis of the challenge was section 15 of Australia’s constitution, which outlines what happens if “the place of a senator becomes vacant before the expiration of his term in service”. The section states that when there is a casual vacancy in the Senate, the replacement should be from the party the outgoing senator represented. The DLP argues that this means Madigan should be replaced by a party member. However, this challenge has never been made before and parliamentarians have previously switched parties without such repercussions. Madigan will sit as an independent in the Senate, rather than under any party banner. Antony Green, the ABC’s election analyst, said there was “no doubt” that Chernov would turn down the DLP’s request because Madigan’s Senate seat wasn’t vacant. “How the DLP could use section 15 to have Senator Madigan’s seat declared vacant is unknown,” he wrote in his blog. “The section begins with ‘If the place of a senator becomes vacant before the expiration of his term of service’. It would be constitutionally novel to use a provision that states what to do in the event of a casual vacancy to create the vacancy in the first place.” Madigan quit the DLP last week, blaming a “cancer of political intrigue”. He tabled documents which he said showed a staffer, Rachel Carling-Jenkins, was undermining him and had openly sought preselection for the Liberal party in Victoria. Funnell said DLP members had become “even more angry” with Madigan over the past week. “A few people have thrown their support behind John but most members think this is wrong and that he has turned his back on people who supported him through thick and thin,” he said. “We are all volunteers and we feel absolutely betrayed. I still ring him every day but he won’t return my calls.” |