The anti-Liberal Party stand by Western Australian Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot on Wik is a bit rich, given that he is only in the Senate on his party’s sufferance.
Senator Lightfoot is an appointed senator. He replaces the late Senator John Pinazza.
The incident made me wonder how many other appointed senators there are.
I thought there might be one or two, to replace unfortuate cases of death or serious illness. In fact there are 16, more than a fifth of the Senate. Moreover, except in the one other case of the death of Olive Zakharov and I think one illness I can’t confirm, the reasons for the vacancies are all political or selfish. Both sides of politics play the game: 8 ALP, 7 Coaltion and 1 Democrat (who defected to the ALP). Every state and territory except the ACT is represented.
The Constitution makes provision for the replacement of senators who die or who retire (presumably from ill-health). The 1977 amendment to the Constitution says that a senator must be replaced with a senator of the same party. It provides also that the replacing senator sits for the balance of the term, which could be anything up to six years. Before the amendment, the replacing senator sat until the next half-senate election, when there would be a by-election with an extra seat up for grabs in that state.
Of the 16 replacement senators, one replaced herself after resigning upon a challenge against her eligibility. A couple replaced senators who went on to diplomatic posts for loyal party and parliamentary service. Several Labor one replaced former minsiters who thought there future was bleak after the change in Goverment. Several Liberal ones replaced senators shamed by travel improprieties or ministerial conflicts. Then there is the famous defection.
We have mentioned one illness and two deaths. The rest were replacement for senators who “”retired”, but one would have thought that if their useful working life was likely to come to an end before the six-year term they would not have stood in the first place. But that’s politics.
The unelected Senator Lightfoot now threatens to push the whole country into a race-based double-dissolution election because he will not toe the party line an accept a Harradine-Howard compromise on Wik.
A little independent on the part of MPs is fine, but when a senator is appointed (not elected) to replace one of his party colleagues under provisions of the Constitution whose spirit is to maintain the elected party balance, it is a bit rich.