Morrison slams campaign to have Frydenberg referred to High Court

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has hit out at an ALP member’s campaign questioning Josh Frydenberg’s eligibility to sit in parliament, which has even drawn criticism from within Labor ranks.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Picture: AAP

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has hit out at an ALP member and lawyer who is threatening to challenge Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s eligibility to sit in federal parliament.

Trevor Poulton is leading the push to refer the Treasurer to the High Court by claiming he is a dual citizen by descent of his Hungarian-born mother Erica Strausz, whose family fled the Holocaust.

But the campaign has faulted, with former candidates who contested Mr Frydenberg’s seat of Kooyong fearful of associating themselves with Mr Poulton, who wrote a 2012 novel called The Holocaust Denier.

Mr Poulton has denied he is a Holocaust denier, but has previously questioned the “many falsehoods in post-WWII propaganda, including much that related to the Holocaust narrative”.

Labor MP Josh Burns yesterday called for Mr Poulton’s expulsion from the party, saying “there was no place in the ALP for Holocaust deniers”.

Labor MP Josh Burns has called for Mr Poulton’s expulsion from the party. Picture: Aaron Francis

Asked about Mr Frydenberg’s eligibility under Section 44 of the Constitution, the PM said it was time to “draw a line on” anti-Semitism.

“I mean, the scourge of anti-Semitic graffiti that we’ve seen in Melbourne just this year, it is absolutely sickening and disgraceful,” Mr Morrison said.

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“And for a Holocaust denier and an anti-Semite to seek to progress that agenda by pretending to have some sort of constitutional purity on Josh Frydenberg, I’m just going to call it out for what it is.

“And I think Australians … I think they would share that. Anti-Semitism has no place in this country.

“I mean, he shouldn’t be in the Labor Party for a start, how he’s even in there I’ve got no idea because I know that is as abhorrent in their way of thinking as it is to ours.”

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