The Turnbull government will not be able to revive a controversial extradition treaty with China for six months because of a procedural trap laid by the Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi.
The Turnbull government pulled the proposed extradition treaty in March after a revolt in Coalition ranks.
The internal revolt was triggered by a disallowance motion moved by Bernardi, which was designed to scuttle the extradition treaty proposal.
Bernardi argues Australia should not be party to an extradition treaty with a country where the rule of law does not prevail.
But even though the government pulled the treaty after its own MPs threatened to join with him to vote it down, and Labor said it could not support the ratification, Bernardi kept his disallowance motion on the books.
Senate procedure dictates if the motion is not debated and defeated, the disallowance automatically stands.
Because there has been a technical disallowance of the extradition treaty, the government is prevented from introducing the same regulation, or a substantially similar regulation, for a period of six months.
The scuttling of the treaty was deeply controversial in Beijing, and the Turnbull government has subsequently provided assurances to the Chinese government in public that it remains committed to the proposal, and will seek to implement it.
The attorney general, George Brandis, and the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, met the secretary of China’s central political and legal affairs commission, Meng Jianzhu, in late April.
The official Chinese news agency Xinhua published a communique after the talks, which included a commitment to ratify the extradition treaty.
But Bernardi on Tuesday night said whatever the public assurances provided by the Australian government, his procedural manoeuvre meant there could be no extradition treaty for six months.
Bernardi told Guardian Australia he hoped the added delay would prompt the Turnbull government to dump the proposal.
The Australian Conservatives senator said he had not sought to bring the disallowance on for a formal debate on Tuesday evening because “it was made very clear to me that if a debate ensued then neither major party would support the motion”.
“It was more important to me to get the outcome. There is no prospect of an extradition treaty with China for at least six months,” Bernardi said on Tuesday. “I hope this prompts a government rethink.
“An extradition treaty should not happen until the rule of law as we know it prevails in China”.
