A lawyer for One Nation has made a submission to the High Court, arguing that Devonport Mayor Steve Martin is ineligible to fill former independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie’s vacancy.
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Questions have been raised around Alderman Martin’s eligibility to sit in the Senate, due to his roles as a mayor and councillor.
The Constitution states that a federal parliamentarian cannot hold an office of profit under the Crown while sitting in the Parliament.
Alderman Martin was second on the Jacqui Lambie Network’s Tasmanian Senate ticket at the 2016 federal election, making him the most likely candidate to fill Ms Lambie’s seat.
Former Tasmanian One Nation candidate Kate McCulloch, who also stood for the Senate in 2016, is tipped to replace Ms Lambie if the High Court rules Alderman Martin ineligible.
Ms McCulloch has enlisted lawyer Robert Newlinds to prosecute her case to the High Court.
“The conclusion can be reached with some ease that Mr Martin holds ‘offices’ and they are ‘of profit’,” Mr Newlinds wrote in his submission.
“While Mr Martin may have no intention of simultaneously sitting in the Senate and on the Devonport City Council, and while it is possible that he may well have intended to resign his two offices in Tasmanian local government prior to taking a place in the Senate, the law required that he resign from his current offices prior to nomination for the Senate.
“This he did not do.”
The case is set to be heard in the High Court on February 6.