Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That pursuant to section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, the House of Representatives refer the following questions to the Court of Disputed Returns—

(a) whether, by reason of s44(i) of the Constitution, the place of the Member for New England (Mr Joyce) has become vacant;

(b) if the answer to Question (a) is “yes”, by what means and in what manner that vacancy should be filled;

(c) what directions and other orders, if any, the Court should make in order to hear and finally dispose of this reference; and

(d) what, if any, orders should be made as to the costs of these proceedings.

This is the first time that the House of Representatives has been asked to move such a motion to resolve a matter of the status of one of its members, so in fact we are making history here today in the House of Representatives.

The government remains absolutely confident that the Deputy Prime Minister is not disqualified under section 44(i) of the Constitution. It is the Deputy Prime Minister who has asked for this matter to be referred to the High Court in order to determine his status, his position here in the parliament. He has done that for two reasons in particular. The first is that we have reached the stage where it is necessary for the High Court to determine what section 44(i) means in the modern era for the Australian parliament. There have been many different references and actions taken, over many years, in the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, but clearly—

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