Kooyong resident says treasurer betrayed Australia on climate change as Gladys Liu also challenged over Chinese language signs

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Josh Frydenberg’s eligibility to sit in parliament has been challenged in the court of disputed returns by a constituent who says he feels “betrayed” by the Liberal party’s inaction on climate change.

Michael Staindl, a resident of Kooyong, filed a petition on Wednesday alleging the treasurer and deputy Liberal leader is disqualified by section 44(1) of the constitution because he is a citizen of Hungary, which Frydenberg denies.

The allegation on the final day for petitions to be filed against the 2019 election results came on top of two challenges against Liberal MP Gladys Liu in Chisholm and Frydenberg over Chinese language signs that told voters “the correct voting method” was to put a “1” next to the Liberal candidate.

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Those challenges were brought by Naomi Hall and independent candidate for Kooyong, Oliver Yates.

The petitions – seen by Guardian Australia – are the first eligibility challenges of the new parliament, after the 45th parliament was rocked by 14 MPs or senators resigning or being ruled ineligible due to dual citizenship.

If successful they could trigger byelections in Kooyong, won by Frydenberg with 55.7% of the two-party preferred vote, and Chisholm, won by Liu with 50.57%.

Frydenberg’s mother was born in Hungary in 1943, and he has declared she held Hungarian citizenship from 1943 to 1948, but Frydenberg has denied that he holds citizenship by descent, citing legal advice from Hungarian citizenship law experts, which he has not released.

Staindl told Guardian Australia he had “known Josh for many years” and decided to bring the challenge because “I’ve been trying to get action on climate change and he makes you feel well heard but I think he’s consistently betrayed me, the electorate and the country on climate change”.

“In the last parliament he gave assurances [of action on the issue] that weren’t convincing to me at all,” he said. “And as our legislator, I think he owes us better integrity than that. [Frydenberg] should show us he’s entitled to sit.”

Staindl is an IT professional who has volunteered for Melbourne-based environmental group Lighter Footprints.

Frydenberg has previously rejected the claim of dual citizenship, arguing “it is absurd to think that I could involuntarily acquire citizenship of a foreign country from a stateless mother and grandparents – it invokes the North Korean example of conferring citizenship on someone against their will”.

Frydenberg has cited immigration entry documents from 1950 that describe his mother as stateless and has argued that his mother is not a Hungarian citizen and that he cannot be by descent.

But Staindl’s petition claims Frydenberg’s mother “arrived in Australia in 1950 in possession of a valid passport, inferred to be a valid Hungarian passport”.

It claimed Frydenberg’s mother “continued to be a citizen of Hungary after 1948”, making him a citizen by descent.

The challenges by Hall and Yates argue the Chinese-language signs were “likely to mislead or deceive an elector in relation to the casting of a vote” in breach of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

Hall’s petition notes that more than 20% of voters in Chisholm speak Mandarin or Cantonese at home and are likely to be able to read Chinese; in Kooyong the figure is about 12%.

The case argues that as a consequence of the signs some voters were likely to have voted 1 for Liu “notwithstanding that such was not the vote that they otherwise intended to cast”.

“Had it been the elector’s intention to direct his or her first preference to a candidate other than Liu, that intention was not realised,” the petition said.

On election day Liu defended the signs, telling Sky News they were “good signs” authorised by the party.

The acting state Liberal director, Simon Frost, has told Guardian Australia the signs were “properly authorised as required by the Commonwealth Electoral Act”.

The Australian Electoral Commission inspected the signs on election day and concluded they were authorised. It concluded they were not misleading or deceptive, relying on a high court precedent that the prohibition is limited to the process of filling in a ballot paper, not influencing how voters formed their decision.

Earlier in July, Victorian lawyer Trevor Poulton – who has written a novel called The Holocaust Denier but says he is not antisemitic – said he was considering a challenge against Frydenberg on the basis of alleged dual citizenship.

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On 18 July, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, was asked about that putative challenge and accused Poulton of seeking to advance an antisemitic agenda “by pretending to have some sort of constitutional purity on Josh Frydenberg”.

At that time Frydenberg said the citizenship issues “were dealt with comprehensively through the last parliament, and the Coalition is confident that none of its members or senators have issues in that regard”.

“No one should deny what was an appalling and tragic event in world history,” he said.

Staindl said he noted “with great alarm and grief that whenever this issue is raised [Frydenberg] raised the Holocaust denier cannons and fires in every direction”.

“This has nothing to do with denial of the Holocaust, it is simply a matter of whether he is an Australian citizen only.”

Staindl said if Frydenberg shows evidence he is not Hungarian he could drop the case, “otherwise, yes, I’ll see it through”.