God, it’s been a whirlwind few weeks for Family First Senator Bob Day, so no judgement if anyone’s been having trouble keeping up. Let’s try to make sense of this hot mess.
For the second time in as many weeks, Day announced his resignation – effective immediately – from the Senate this morning, following the liquidation, potential resurrection, and ultimate demise of his building company Home Australia Group. This leaves over 200 houses unfinished and a bunch of unpaid, and presumably very unhappy, investors.
Not as worried about Bob Day’s future as I am about the hundreds of families and contractors who’ve been ripped off by his companies.
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) November 1, 2016
Day’s departure also leaves the Coalition one vote short of reintroducing their controversial building industry watchdog, a.k.a. The Reason We Had That Fucked Double Dissolution Election, a.k.a. Why One Nation Are Now A Thing Again. Other than being used to justify that wreck of an election, The Australian Building and Construction Commission legislation is newsworthy because it desperately needs the support of the cross-bench, Senator David Leyonjelm‘s even claimed the Coalition offered to trade votes for an end to the Adler shotgun ban.
His resignation also follows yesterday’s news that the government is handing $2 million to the Day-linked North East Vocational College, which Labor senator Doug Cameron called “a misuse of public money”.
And in a final, potentially more important, twist to the insane saga, Day’s resignation has directly created a High Court debate around whether he was legally elected at all.
When Senate President Stephen Parry received Day’s notice, he emailed senators that he would have to tell the South Australian Governor that he was not sure it created a casual vacancy for which Family First could nominate a replacement.
Attorney General George Brandis and Special Minister for State Scott Ryan then announced that the government is referring the matter to the High Court, because Day’s contract with the Commonwealth includes an indirect pecuniary interest that SBS understands “may relate to arrangements around Mr Day’s electoral office.”
BREAKING Bob Day Senate validity is doubtful bc he or family trust owns the building where his electorate office is. That’s a breach!
— Laura Jayes (@ljayes) November 1, 2016
Reminder: Justin Gleeson said this on October 14. Government may have known about this for weeks and said nothing#auspol #BobDay pic.twitter.com/MF1GEJgzLa
— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) November 1, 2016
Senator Penny Wong now says this raises questions on whether Day can be replaced within the year, which would coincidentally deny the Coalition yet another chance to pass the ABCC bill. But the bigger question now becomes why did it take so long for the Senate, and Brandis/Ryan, to act on this information? How long did the Coalition know about Day’s apparently tenuous right to his seat?
We are going to hear a *lot* more about the mess in the next few days, so stayed tuned.
Source: SBS.
Image: Getty / Stefan Postles.
