In the year since, a total of 17 out of the 226 politicians elected in 2016 have been caught up in Section 44 woes. Of those, 15 were forced to resign from parliament and so far, only two have returned: Liberal MP John Alexander and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.



“It's strange, being the first domino and then copping a certain amount of abuse from Labor, which said we were disorganised, and the government, who said the Greens were bad and terrible,” Ludlam told BuzzFeed News this week. “I think it has been a surprise for everyone just how deep and widespread it has become.”



When BuzzFeed News spoke to Ludlam, he was on a ship in New York Harbor. Ludlam has been travelling around the world on a peace ship for the past ten days, along with five weeks at the start of this year, doing lectures and presentations on the nuclear industry and renewable energy, among other things.



“I'm kind of having a ball, actually.”



He remains convinced he made the right decision to resign and not be dragged before the High Court as so many others have been since.

“It would have been untenable for me or Larissa to have said, ‘We are clearly in breach here and you're going to have to dynamite us out.’ We would have been smashed. We wouldn't have gotten away with it.”

Waters is set to return to parliament following the resignation of her replacement, Andrew Bartlett, who is stepping down to contest a lower house seat at the next federal election. Ludlam said more dominoes were likely to fall before the parliament is done.

“I don't think we're done yet, because [prime minister Malcolm] Turnbull protected a whole pile of his people who should probably be facing by-elections too,” he said. “So I feel like it still hasn't washed through because the government has been so bloody dishonest.”

Labor last year attempted to refer its MPs currently facing by-elections at the end of this month (Justine Keay, Susan Lamb, and Josh Wilson) along with several Liberal MPs to the High Court to have it decide their eligibility. The government refused, but Labor eventually relented to by-elections for its own MPs once a High Court decision ruled Labor senator Katy Gallagher ineligible.