1st Dec 2016, 4:36 PM – Senate Motions - Attorney-General - Rod Culleton

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by WA One Nation Senator Rod Culleton also on behalf of Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie.

In making and voting in favour of this motion, Senator Culleton was rebelling from his party, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party. This is the sixth time Sentor Culleton has rebelled since joining Parliament in July 2016.

There has been growing tension between Senator Culleton and the One Nation Party according to the media.

Motion text

That—

(a) the Senate notes that:

(i) on 25 November 2016, solicitors on behalf of the Commonwealth Attorney-General filed a Statement of Agreed Facts in the High Court sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns in the matter of Re Rodney Culleton,

(ii) paragraph 1 of the Statement of Agreed Facts includes the following statement: the Magistrate in convicting Senator Culleton as an absent offender was precluded by section 25 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) from making an order for a sentence of imprisonment, and

(iii) the facts set out above and agreed by solicitors acting on behalf of the Commonwealth Attorney-General were not before the Senate on Monday 7 November 2016 when it considered the motion moved by Senator Brandis to refer the matter to the High Court under section 378 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1908;

(b) the Senate calls on the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) to attend the chamber and clarify this matter