The Greens are hoping Fraser Anning will become only the second senator to be suspended from the chamber in 16 years, a move which would bring a premature end to his parliamentary career and fulfil the desires of more than 1 million people petitioning for the Queensland senator to be sacked.

The Greens leader Richard Di Natale has written to both Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten asking for their parties’ support in suspending Anning from both sittings and Senate estimates for two weeks, using the standing orders.

The move, if successful, would in effect expel the Queensland senator from the parliament. The next election must be held in May and Anning, as an independent senator, has almost no chance of achieving the full Senate quota required for re-election.

Di Natale and the Greens are seeking support to have the Senate note Anning’s “shameful” comments following the Christchurch mosque massacres, as well as the censure motion both parties have agreed to when parliament resumes early next month, and go one step further and suspend him from the chamber.

“We have received advice that the Senate can pass a motion that suspends senator Anning from performing duties in the Senate chamber and in Senate estimates,” Di Natale wrote to both Morrison and Shorten.

“This suspension, would, in effect, expel him from the parliament.”

Under changes to the Parliamentary Privileges Act in 1987, the power for MPs to expel a fellow member from the parliament was removed, in line with the constitution, which sets out the houses of parliament are to be “directly chosen by the people”.

But it retained the power to suspend members, a power which was used against Di Natale himself in November last year, when he refused to apologise for calling LNP senator Barry O’Sullivan “a pig”, after the Queensland senator referred to Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young as having “a bit of Nick Xenophon in her”.

Di Natale was suspended from attending the Senate sitting until the next day. But the Greens hope that by using the same standing orders, the chamber can suspend Anning.

In advice seen by Guardian Australia, the move would be possible, given section 50 of the constitution gives the parliament the power to determine “the mode in which its powers, privileges and immunities may be exercised and upheld” and “the order and conduct of its business and proceedings”.

While the standing order 203, which was used to suspend Di Natale last year, sets out limited situations in which a senator can be temporarily removed, it doesn’t prevent senators being suspended for other reasons.

It’s that loophole the Greens hope to exploit, in removing Anning from the Senate, although, coming so close to an election, the move could leave the parliament open to a legal challenge from Anning, given it would amount to a de facto expulsion.

Di Natale said given Anning’s comments, coming after his maiden speech where he used the phrase “final solution” in relation to migration, and his attendance at a far-right rally in Victoria attended by neo-Nazi’s, the parliament needed to take a stand.

But the major parties could take some convincing, with the government relying on the bipartisan censure motion Mathias Cormann and Penny Wong plan on jointly moving against Anning when parliament resumes next month, and Labor questioning the possibility of a suspension for actions taken by a senator outside the house.

Centre Alliance, Derryn Hinch and Tim Storer all said they would need to explore the motion more before coming to a decision.

More than a million people have signed a petition calling for Anning to be removed from the parliament.

Anning, who became a senator on the One Nation ticket, has been widely condemned by the major parties and the majority of the crossbench, although his one-time party leader, Pauline Hanson said she would abstain from the coming censure motion, a move Hinch described as ‘cowardly’.

Peter Dutton drew criticism when he accused Greens MPs as being “just as bad” as Anning, a claim his colleague Cormann rejected, telling the ABC Anning’s comments were “uniquely outrageous and uniquely unacceptable” and deserved universal condemnation. The Indonesian foreign ministry also summoned Australia’s ambassador to express its condemnation of Anning’s comments.

.@MathiasCormann: There’s a difference between what Senator Anning said and robust political debate@PatsKarvelas: Is there an equivalence between white supremacy and the left?



MC: Fraser Anning’s comments are uniquely outrageous, uniquely unacceptable & deserve to be condemned pic.twitter.com/SOlfb0BS5V — ABC News (@abcnews) March 18, 2019

Shorten said he believed there were “limited mechanisms” for dealing with Anning, but believed the coming election would solve the problem.

“There’ll be an election in six or seven or eight weeks’ time,” he said on Monday.

“I certainly as leader of one of the two major parties will be putting this fellow, and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party and people who promulgate this sort of business, I’ll be putting them last on our tickets.

“I’d hope the other major party does. That’s what moderate political parties do. But I am going to leave it to the judgment of the Australian people.

“The parliament will censure him, that’s the highest form of reprimand that I understand is available for us, and we’re going to work together, both the Liberals and the Nationals and Labor and the Greens on this.”

