Family First senator Bob Day has cleared the first hurdle in his challenge to Senate voting reforms after the chief justice of the high court referred the case to the full bench, for hearing during the budget week.
Speaking outside the court on Friday, Day said the orders were issued by chief justice Robert French for the full bench to hear the case on 2 and 3 May – as Malcolm Turnbull brings down his first budget and his last before the next election.
Day immediately claimed the development as a win for voters’ rights although constitutional lawyers have been sceptical about the merits of the case.
“I have always believed there’s merit but clearly the chief justice believes those also otherwise we wouldn’t be on this trajectory,” Day said.
“I think today was a really important win in the battle for voters’ rights and let’s be clear what happened last month in the parliament, that voters’ rights were taken away.”
Last month, the Coalition and the Greens passed a bill which requires voters to number the Senate ballot paper from one to six above the line, or number one to 12 preferences below the line. However, if a voter simply votes one above the line, the vote will still be valid. The vote will be exhausted if candidates in that column are eliminated from the count.
Day is challenging the legislation on the grounds it takes away the voters’ rights to delegate their distribution of preferences. The high court is expected to hand down its decision fairly quickly after the May hearing, given the government is expected to call an election in the week after the budget.
The move adds another layer of pressure on the Turnbull government, which is preparing to return to parliament in a special sitting on Monday to vote on the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill (ABCC). If, as expected, the ABCC bill is voted down, it will constitute the key double dissolution trigger for the expected election on 2 July.
Labor has made it clear that it is ready for an election and will not delay the vote.
Also on Monday, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson flagged a Senate motion calling for a royal commission into the banks following a string of financial scandals. Whish-Wilson introduced a similar motion in June last year at a time when Labor did not support such a commission. At the time, Senator Sam Dastyari – a long-time campaigner for financial industry reforms – called the Greens motion “a stunt”.
Labor now supports the royal commission and has committed to hold one if it wins government but opposition leader Bill Shorten stopped short on Friday from supporting the Greens motion on the grounds he had not seen it.
“Labor is the only party other than the Liberals capable of forming a government, we don’t want to just do gestures,” Shorten said.
“It’s no small thing for the alternative government of Australia, as opposed to a group of people in the Senate, proposing a royal commission into banking.
“We do this not lightly. We’ve already been subject to quite extreme attacks. The Australian Bankers Association have threatened Labor with an advertising campaign to stop Labor winning the election merely because they want to keep protecting their special position.”
Shorten called on Turnbull to stop protecting the banks and put “the people first”.
