Australia General Discussion 2.0

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Is Turnbull really going to pass Senate reform? Ugh. At least the Republic remains a pipe dream. How soon can we get Abbott back?

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Cory Bernardi is leaving the Liberal Party.

To sit as an independent, to join One Nation, or to start his own political movement?

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I'd hope it does -- it'd be a positive development for a less ridiculous far-right party than One Nation to emerge, both to stifle One Nation and to continue to foster the growth of the third-party vote in Australia, leading hopefully to the eventual collapse of the duopoly.

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The High Court has finally handed down its ruling on the validity of Bob Day's election to the Senate. In sum, Day has been deemed to have been ineligible to serve since February 2016, obvisouly before the last election. As a result, he was also ineligible to be elected at the July election and a re-count of the votes will be conducted by the AEC to choose his replacement.

The High Court has yet to decide if Family First is still entitled to it's above-the-line votes or if they are disqualified.

What would be the difference between this case and One Nation in Queensland in 1998, where their above-the-line votes were obviously maintained?

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Terrible news: Palmer United disbands.

God, the end of an era...

In other news, Labor is going to formally challenge the new Family First's senator's eligibility to sit in Parliament because of purported concerns over dual citizenship.

Gichuhi, right? Since she's the last person on the South Australian FFP list, if she is kicked out of the Senate (what a fail for Family First, having an entire list of people ineligible to serve), there would be a recount of those votes with probably Labor but possibly One Nation picking up a seat, correct?

EDIT: Although this seems unlikely to happen since under what was then Kenyan law, she lost her Kenyan citizenship in 1989. Means Gichuhi doesn't hold any citizenship other than Australian and hasn't in 28 years. Also, if Gichuhi is seated, she becomes the first African-Australian to serve in Parliament, which is an interesting milestone.