Debts accrued by Joyce and five other parliamentarians included salaries and staff expenses

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Barnaby Joyce and five former parliamentarians disqualified by section 44 of the constitution have had their debts waived by the finance minister.

Mathias Cormann has waived the debts of the member for New England and the four senators ruled ineligible in October by the high court due to dual citizenship – the Greens’ Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters, the former Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash and One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts.

One Nation’s Rodney Culleton – who was found ineligible by the high court because of a later-annulled larceny conviction – has also had his debt waived, despite protesting he had not consented to the process.

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These debts include salaries, superannuation and electorate allowances, as well as non-salary expenses, such as staff expenses, office expenses and travel expenses.

The six parliamentarians were ruled ineligible from the 2 July 2016 federal election onwards. Given senators receive a base salary of $200,000 and Joyce served as deputy prime minister on about $400,000 a year, the wages bill for the parliamentarians alone would have topped $1m.

In a statement Cormann said that the Department of Finance, Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, and the departments of the House of Representatives and Senate had formed a committee to consider the debts.



“The departmental advisory committee determined that all parliamentarians performed their duties in good faith for a proper purpose and that it was difficult for individuals at the time of nomination to know that they were ineligible for nomination,” he said.

Cormann accepted the recommendation and waived the debts, consistent with a process outlined in the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2014.

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Five other parliamentarians who resigned due to dual citizenship – Jacqui Lambie, Skye Kakoschke-Moore, John Alexander, David Feeney and the former Senate president Stephen Parry – are still having their cases assessed by the finance department.

The joint standing committee on electoral matters is ​considering the disqualifications in s​44 of the constitution. ​The process could lead to a referendum on repealing or reforming the section​.

The chair of the electoral committee, Linda Reynolds, said section 44 was “a political time bomb waiting to happen”.

Reynolds said she was concerned that because of the ban on dual citizens half the Australian population was not eligible to run for parliament​. The constitution also bans federal public servants from running, requiring them to quit to contest an election.

Reynolds said that candidates must “only owe allegiance to Australia” but “having dual citizenship in this multicultural society is not the same thing as owing allegiance to another country”.

“Ironically, while section 44 was created to protect Australian sovereignty, it has become the case that whether or not an Australian has dual citizenship and is able to easily renounce that citizenship can be entirely up to another nation,” she said.

“That means that foreign nations have the power to shape our parliament by potentially limiting who can become a candidate for election.”

Culleton – who still describes himself as a “senator in exile” in correspondence – told Guardian Australia the decision was “an election [the finance minister] has made, not one I’ve consented to”.

“I say there is no debt regardless.”

Culleton was referred to the court of disputed returns in November 2016 to test whether his larceny conviction at the time of his election, later annulled, rendered him ineligible.

Culleton believes he was wrongfully removed because the then-Senate president Stephen Parry declared his seat vacant in January 2017 once the federal court ruled he was bankrupt, rather than the Senate determining his eligibility under section 47 of the constitution.

However, on 3 February 2017 the high court unanimously ruled that Culleton was not eligible to run for the Senate due to the larceny conviction.