High Court challenge for Frydenberg
Australia’s Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has had his eligibility to sit in parliament formally challenged in the court of disputed returns according to a report in The Guardian Australia.
Kooyong resident Michael Staindl, filed a petition on Wednesday alleging that the treasurer and deputy Liberal leader is disqualified by section 44(1) of the constitution because he is a citizen of Hungary.
Frydenberg has denied that he is a Hungarian citizen.
“I have clear legal advice that I do not hold citizenship of another country” he told J-Wire.
Frydenberg’s mother was born in Hungary in 1943, and he has declared she held Hungarian citizenship from 1943 to 1948. The treasurer claims he has had legal advice from Hungarian citizenship law experts and that he does not hold citizenship by descent.
Staindl has said he feels “betrayed” by the Liberal party’s inaction on climate change.
In July, Victorian lawyer Trevor Poulton – who has written a novel called The Holocaust Denier but says he is not antisemitic – indicated that he was “briefing certain constituents in Kooyong” to file a High Court challenge to the Treasurer’s election on the basis of alleged dual citizenship.
Staindl said if Frydenberg shows evidence he is not Hungarian he could drop the case, “otherwise, yes, I’ll see it through”.
