The Nationals MP David Gillespie has clear legal advice that he has no case to answer in the high court, according to his leader, Barnaby Joyce.
Gillespie is facing a high court challenge over claims he holds an indirect financial interest in the commonwealth, which would, if proved, rule him ineligible for office.
The claims question Gillespie’s financial link to a government-owned corporation, Australia Post, through his ownership of a suburban shopping centre in Port Macquarie. Through their company, Goldenboot, Gillespie and his wife lease one of the shops to a local woman who runs a newsagent with an Australia Post outlet.
The constitution prevents members of parliament from holding a “direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the public service of the commonwealth otherwise than as a member”.
Labor referred the matter to the court, seeking to have Gillespie ruled ineligible to have stood in the 2016 election. If successful, it would cause a byelection in Gillespie’s seat of Lyne and put the government’s one-seat majority at risk.
The Coalition has described the move as a stunt and constitutional experts have said the link between Gillespie and Australia Post appears to be reasonably remote.
Joyce told the ABC on Sunday that Gillespie had sought “senior legal advice”, which suggested there was no case to answer.
“I’m certain that he’s got senior legal opinion on this,” Joyce said. “And they have said that they don’t believe that there’s a case there.”
Joyce said the fact there was an intermediary between Gillespie’s ownership of the centre and the Australian Post outlet meant the financial interest was “not directly with him”.
Labor’s referral raises a part of the constitution – section 44(v) – used in the case of the former Family First senator Bob Day.
Day’s election was found to have been in breach of the constitution through the leasing of his Adelaide electorate office by the commonwealth.
Fullarton Investments, an entity that bought the property from the Day family trust on a vendor finance basis, was to receive rent from the commonwealth and use it to pay back the trust, although no rent was ever paid.
Day’s seat was already vacant but the ruling meant his seat was filled by a recount of the last election’s votes. That process saw senator Lucy Gichuhi elected as the new senator for South Australia.
Gillespie’s seat of Lyne, on the New South Wales mid-north coast, is considered a safe Nationals seat. It was, however, last held by the independent Rob Oakeshott, who lost it to Gillespie in 2013.
The last Labor candidate for Lyne, Peter Alley, commenced the high court action. Alley said he had not “done so lightly” but that the voters of Lyne had a right to know if their representative had been properly elected to office.
