Citizenship stoush between Josh Frydenberg and climate activist Michael Staindl settled

Josh Frydenberg ends his long-running citizenship stoush with climate activist by accepting $350,000 in legal costs.

Josh Frydenberg says ‘the evidence was always clear my mother arrived in Australia as a stateless person in 1950 after surviving the Holocaust’. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Josh Frydenberg has received $350,000 in legal costs in the wake of his citizenship stoush with Melbourne climate activist Michael Staindl, the former treasurer says.

Mr Frydenberg said on Thursday the costs were paid to his lawyers after a long-running battle over the former Treasurer‘s citizenship in which Mr Staindl failed to substantiate his case.

Mr Staindl challenged the then Kooyong MP and deputy Liberal leader’s eligibility to sit in parliament based on his entitlement to Hungarian citizenship through his mother.

Mr Frydenberg’s mother and her family fled Europe following World War II, and he said previously she was stateless.

Mr Staindl lost the case and was ordered to pay $410,000 of the Mr Frydenberg’s legal fees, leading to a campaign by the climate activist to prevent being forced into bankruptcy.

“This week Michael Staindl paid my lawyers $350,000 in legal costs,‘’ Mr Frydenberg said in a statement.

Climate activist Michael Staindl. Picture: AAP

“(It was) a disgraceful action that should never have been brought. The evidence was always clear my mother arrived in Australia as a stateless person in 1950 after surviving the Holocaust.

“Sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, the Federal Court in March 2020 unanimously dismissed Staindl‘s case and awarded costs against him.

“In the judgment Chief Justice Allsop, Justice Kenny and Justice Robertson concluded that ‘Mr Frydenberg has proved that he was not and never has been a citizen of Hungary’.’’

“I thank everyone who gave me support over the course of this case from both sides of the political aisle. It was much appreciated.”

The bankruptcy case Mr Frydenberg lodged against Mr Staindl was due to be heard in the Federal Court in Melbourne on Thursday.

Mr Frydenberg filed a creditor’s petition for sequestration in May for legal fees totally $410,000.

Judicial Registrar Amelia Edwards reportedly said she had received a request for an order to dismiss the petition.

Mr Staindl was at the heart of a campaign in which his supporters urged Mr Frydenberg not to force the sale of the family‘s home.

Mr Staindl accused Mr Frydenberg and key allies, including then prime minister Scott Morrison, of turning on him and demanded that constituents phone the former MP’s office and ask him to stop the bankruptcy and forgive the debt.

In one campaign flyer it was said: “The plain truth is that the allies of Frydenberg were doing this to try to push against a lawful process that was in the public interest.”

Mr Frydenberg lost the seat of Kooyong in the May federal election after a fierce local backlash against the Coalition, with key issues including climate change and women’s rights.

Mr Frydenberg is expected to attempt to return to federal politics.