He replaces Fiona Nash, who was disqualified for having dual citizenship

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Retired major general and Liberal candidate Jim Molan can now take his seat in the Senate after the high court declared he has been duly elected as a senator for the state of New South Wales.

“There should be no lingering uncertainty, and it is in the public interest that that issue be resolved as soon as possible,” Justice Stephen Gageler said at the high court in Sydney on Friday.

Molan replaces former Nationals senator Fiona Nash who was disqualified by the court for holding dual citizenship.

Fiona Nash unlikely to return after senators refuse to create vacancy Read more

Nash was to be replaced by Liberal candidate Hollie Hughes but Hughes was found by the court to be disqualified because of her job with the administrative appeals tribunal.

Molan, one of the architect’s of the Coalition’s Operation Sovereign Borders policy, was then forced to wait for the seat due to the ambiguity about which NSW Coalition senators had three-year terms and which had six-year terms.

Last week Molan told Sky News he expected to get “the residual of a three-year period of time”.

In a statement on Friday, the Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said there was “no dispute between the parties that I ought receive the six-year term and Jim Molan the three-year term”.

“The evidence demonstrated that on the special count, I was placed in the fifth position, which was previously occupied by Fiona Nash, and that Jim Molan was placed in the 10th position,” she said.

Nevertheless, after a double dissolution the Senate itself determines which senators receive six and three year terms.

Fierravanti-Wells conceded that the court “left open the question for any party to come back before the court” to dispute the place and term of a senator but said she hoped it would not be necessary.

“The intention of the voters of NSW was clear ... [and] one would expect the Senate will abide by the intention of the voters,” she said.