Banished NXT candidate Tim Storer makes grab at Skye Kakosche-Moore’s seat

EXILED Nick Xenophon Team member Tim Storer claims votes cast for his former party at the 2016 election, which elected dual national Skye Kakoschke-Moore, should fall to him.

• Skye Kakoschke-Moore quits parliament over British dual citizenship
• Senator’s unusual legal bid to replace herself
• Tim Storer drops attempt to seize Nick Xenophon’s Senate seat

EXILED Nick Xenophon Team member Tim Storer claims votes cast for his former party at the 2016 election which elected dual national Skye Kakoschke-Moore should fall to him.

In his submission to the High Court, Mr Storer’s lawyers — including high profile barrister Michael Abbott QC — contend that it was irrelevant that he had been “purportedly expelled as a member” of NXT in November.

The Federal Government has backed his assertion, arguing that if the court excluded Mr Storer because he was no longer a member of NXT it would create “uncertainty and instability, and would expose the result of elections to manipulation”.

Ms Kakoschke-Moore resigned from the Senate in November after discovering she is a Brit, becoming one of 10 scalps claimed in the ongoing citizenship saga.

Former NXT Senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore resigns after being found to be a dual citizen. Picture: AAP / David Mariuz

Ms Kakoschke-Moore’s mother was born to British parents in Singapore in 1957, before she moved to Australia in 1970, making her a UK citizen by descent.

In other citizenship cases, the court has ordered a countback, which has generally resulted in the next candidate on the affected political party’s ticket taking the seat which in this case would be Adelaide businessman Mr Storer.

But this case was seemingly complicated because Mr Storer was expelled from NXT about two weeks prior to Ms Kakoschke-Moore’s resignation.

He made a shock grab for Mr Xenophon’s Senate seat after the party leader Nick Xenophon resigned to run for the state seat of Hartley in the upcoming March election.

The party had picked NXT staffer and former submariner Rex Patrick to fill the spot but Mr Storer sought legal advice in a failed bid for it.

At a directions hearing in December, Ms Kakoschke-Moore’s legal team argued that the former senator should be included in the recount because she had successfully renounced her British citizenship.

Former Senate candidate Tim Storer.

David Jackson, QC, for Ms Kakoschke-Moore, said the selection of Mr Storer to fill the vacancy would “not reflect the choice exercised by the voters” because he had left the NXT.

Mr Storer’s submission states Ms Kakoschke-Moore was “not chosen by the electors” at the 2016 election because she was never eligible to be nominated.

“It is not now open to her to suggest that a failure to include her in the special count for the 2016 election would lead to failure to realise the ‘true results of the polling’,” the submission states.

“The totality of Ms Kakoschke-Moore’s submissions conflate the legal consequences of constitutional disqualification ... with the unrelated fact that Mr Storer will not be a member of the party for which he received formal endorsement when the special count is conducted.”

The submission states the Electoral Act makes it clear that, for the purposes of the election, once a candidate’s endorsement by a political party was accepted by the Commissioner it was determined “once and for all”.

“Ms Kakoschke-Moore’s submissions raise the possibility that a person could seek to challenge the right of someone in the position of Senator (Cory) Bernardi to continue to hold his place in the Senate because of his changed political allegiances,” the submission states.

The Federal Government’s submission stated there would be no distortion of the voters’ true legal intentions if Mr Starer was elected following a special could despite no longer being a member of the NXT.

“If a sitting senator resigns from their party and becomes an independent, they do not thereby vacate their place in the Senate,” the submission states.