Thread by @Julieoz836

Read this comment and sign the petition. This is a very cruel act by Josh Frydenberg that sends a message to all voters not to challenge sitting MPs under S44. This is similar to the tactic used by other LNP ministers including … chng.it/mcsKGMqvXb via @ChangeAUS @AP @vmp9

2. Before the 2019 Federal election, a number of Federal Parliamentarians had been caught by Section 44 (i) of the Constitution, which among other things bars dual citizens from being MPs. Josh Frydenberg’s name was raised as being entitled to dual citizenship by descent from

3. his Hungarian mother. On the face of it, there was a case to be made. Frydenberg did not refer himself to the High Court to sort it out, nor did the Parliament. Instead, he twice asked the Hungarian Embassy to confirm he did not need to apply for a renunciation of any

4. residual Hungarian citizenship rights. Each time, they responded by sending him the required forms and advising him to apply. He did not do so.
The problem with being a dual citizen and a Minister is that if you are a dual citizen your decisions are potentially in question.

5. So this matter needed determination.
Michael became the brave petitioner, as is his constitutional right, to bring the case before the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns. As a Kooyong voter, he could do this for a short time after the election and he did so.

6. His motivation was that Frydenberg should be held to account, due to his failure to act on climate change, to protect our children’s future. With this the only means left available. But this method of going to the High Court made it harder to make the case, because Michael had

7. to legally prove, "that on the balance of probabilities" Frydenberg was a Hungarian citizen by descent.
As a result of bringing this action, Michael was attacked under Parliamentary privilege by PM Morrison, Michael Sukkar, Tim Smith a Victorian MP and others, falsely called

8. anti-Semitic; pilloried in the Murdoch media, abandoned by some of his supporters including GetUp, and attacked by Morrison outside Parliament. A narrative was established by the allies of Frydenberg that Michael’s action was an abomination because he was using

9. the Holocaust for political purposes. The plain truth is that the allies of Frydenberg were the guilty party in this respect - after all, Frydenberg is either a Hungarian citizen or not, the law is the law, and to bar consideration of the matter being considered because

10. Frydenberg’s mother’s family left Hungary in Sept 1949 following the communist take-over of Hungary, after the Holocaust and WWII and during the Soviet occupation is at best blatantly wrong-headed.
The Court found against Michael, and ordered that he pay Frydenberg’s costs.

11. These were assessed by the court at $410,000 and there is no further appeal. Michael has raised about $37,000 in total, which has already been spent on the case, and has also received pro bono support.
The High court ruled that there was no public interest in bringing

12. the case, and so the Commonwealth will not automatically bear his costs. This defies explanation, and the court gave none.
Frydenberg’s lawyers Arnold Bloch Liebler, who reportedly made more than $100 million from Federal government contracts in the past year,

13. may have acted pro bono for him. This means that they could absorb these costs if they chose to do so. However, now that the court has found that Michael must pay Frydenberg’s costs, Frydenberg has served Michael with a notice of bankruptcy in order to recover the $410,000.