'Business as usual', says Bishop amid heat over decisions made by Joyce, Nash
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Julie Bishop has spent her first day as acting prime minister as the government shoots down potential legal challenges to decisions made by disqualified politicians.
“It’s business as usual,” she told reporters in Perth on Monday.
“We’re continuing to govern, just from Western Australia.”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is heading to Israel to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Beersheba.
Labor believes more than 100 Turnbull government decisions are vulnerable to legal challenge as a result of Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash’s dual citizenship status.
The opposition has received legal advice on a range of decisions which could be challenged after the High Court disqualified Mr Joyce and Ms Nash from Parliament.
Among the 118 decisions under threat are ministerial announcements and grants, legislative instruments, water access entitlement payments, elements of the NBN rollout and the mobile black spot program.
Acting Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek said some decisions were likely to have left people feeling aggrieved.
“If they want to pursue the government on some of them, I don’t doubt they will,” Ms Plibersek told ABC radio on Monday.
“No doubt there will be some people who will be wondering whether they were treated fairly and whether decisions were made properly by Fiona Nash and Barnaby Joyce when they weren’t properly elected to the parliament.”
The South Australian government has asked for legal advice concerning the validity of decisions made by Joyce during his time in federal cabinet.
Premier Jay Weatherill says the government wants to be sure decisions Mr Joyce made in relation to the Murray-Darling Basin and on other issues affecting South Australia will stand.
But he’s told ABC radio that when it comes to the former deputy prime minister’s time in parliament, the SA government is more concerned over what he failed to do rather than what he did.
Unions are seeking legal advice on whether cuts to Sunday penalty rates could be challenged
Sunday penalty rates in the retail and pharmacy sector were cut from July 1 and the Australian Council of Trade Unions on Monday said it is consulting lawyers over the validity of the vote which affected 700,000 workers.
“We just think it’s illegitimate, when (former deputy prime minister) Barnaby (Joyce) knew he was under a cloud that he was voting on things that made a real difference to people,” Secretary Sally McManus told 3AW.
Joyce blasts Liberals over citizenship sniping
Barnaby Joyce has blasted Liberal Party figures for sniping at the Nationals over the dual citizenship saga, reminding them the junior coalition partner was responsible for winning the 2016 election.
“We won the last election because the National Party didn’t go backwards, we actually went forwards, we actually held all our seats and won one (more),” Mr Joyce told ABC radio on Monday.
The Acting Prime Minister has moved to calm any potential tensions between the two parties which form the Coalition.
“We’re the most powerful political momentum in Australian history and so we’re stronger together and that’s why we’re working closely as a Coalition,” Ms Bishop said.
“There will be issues from time to time, but like any family, you get over them and you move on.”
The High Court would be asked to rule on whether the decisions were constitutionally valid, as they were made after the two ministers ceased to hold office last October.
However, Mr Joyce is confident the decisions he took as a minister will stand because his dismissal is not retrospective.
The Acting Prime Minister also told reporters many of the decisions made by government were part of “a collective decision-making process”.
“There may be a few decisions [in question]; the Attorney-General said that we’ll look at those, but the vast majority of decisions are made by Cabinet,” Ms Bishop said.
The former deputy prime minister and four senators were found to hold dual citizenship and constitutionally ineligible to nominate for parliament at the 2016 election.
Mr Joyce said when you are declared in an election, you stay that way until you “die, resign or the High Court finds you ineligible”.
“Not the High Court finds you ineligible, therefore retrospectively, it’s when the High Court finds you ineligible,” he told reporters on the campaign trail in his seat of New England on Sunday.
Voters will go to the polls in his seat of New England on December 2.
Mr Joyce is expected to win, but the government will face a rocky time in the interim after losing its one-seat majority, especially when the House of Representatives next sits in the week of November 27.
Independent MP Cathy McGowan and NXT MP Rebekha Sharkie have indicated they will back the government in a no-confidence motion.
But potential votes on a banking royal commission and keeping Sunday penalty rates could yet prove a splintering headache for the Turnbull government.
– With AAP
Article source: http://watoday.com.au/sport/cricket/john-hastings-retires-from-firstclass-and-oneday-cricket-20171006-gyvpbh.html
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