Federal election 2019: new marker of political stupid looms on the horizon

These scandals are a reminder that the political class is as dumb as a cardboard box full of scrota.

Clockwise from top left, Steve Dickson, Ross MacDonald, Luke Creasey and Jeremy Hearn.

It looked yesterday that the election campaign had reached peak stupidity.

PHON senate candidate Steve Dickson resigned after film of him drunkenly cavorting in a Washington DC strip club was screened on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair.

Just as Pauline Hanson got on the blub on the same program last night, decrying how she’d been let down horribly by her candidates, another PHON candidate stepped forward to take a crack at the prize for Australia’s Dumbest Politician when it emerged Ross MacDonald, PHON’s man in Leichhardt, has a Facebook page devoted to ‘What I did on My Holiday in Thailand’.

The stupidity indexed remained stuck in the red zone today with Labor candidate in the Greens-held seat of Melbourne, Luke Creasey, facing questions over a raft of appalling posts that include rape jokes.

Creasey’s posts also mocked working class in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire working class youth. That’s the modern Labor Party for you.

It appears Creasey will remain the Labor candidate after apologising in a statement today.

“It’s been brought to my attention that some posts I shared on social media several years ago when I was in my early 20s have been circulated,” Creasey said.

“What I said was stupid, immature and in no way reflects the views I hold today. I apologise for these posts which have been removed.

Meanwhile, the Liberal candidate for Isaacs, Jeremy Hearn, was dumped this morning for Islamophobic remarks he made on social media last year.

And earlier in the week, Labor dumped one of its NT senate candidates, Wayne Kurnoth for posting bizarre anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

The list of stupid grows by the day.

We could, and should, blame the political parties who seem to have some sort of Amish reluctance to scroll through candidates’ social media posts prior to preselection.

The candidates themselves seem blissfully unaware of the existence of social media apps that conveniently delete posts after a fixed period. It is as much a rule for the general populace as politicians. The only people who are interested in your old social media posts are those who are not your friends. Remove them manually or let technology do it for you.

I am sure I am like everyone else who views these almost daily social media driven scandals with a mix of laughter and noodle scratching wonderment. It is a reminder, if we needed one, that the political class is as dumb as a cardboard box full of scrota.

But there is something bubbling away in the background that on the stupidity scale could rewrite the record books, made even more so by the fact that it is a problem that was entirely foreseeable.

We know that Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party has at least 18 candidates who had parents who were born overseas. That alone does not make them ineligible under s.44 (i), as circumstances of foreign citizenship vary. A nation might concede citizenship automatically when a person becomes an Australian citizen while others, require a declaration of renunciation.

Elsewhere, the Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party candidate in Bendigo, Julie Hoskin, competed her AEC declaration ticking the box indicating she is an undischarged bankrupt. She disputes the ruling and has launched an appeal against the bankruptcy ruling.

Hoskin was declared a bankrupt in September last year.

Under Section 44 (iii) an undischarged bankrupt is deemed incapable of sitting in the federal parliament.

Former One Nation senator turned independent, Rod Culleton also nominated for election to the Senate. The AEC has asked the Australian Federal Police to examine if Mr Culleton has made a false declaration on his nomination form for the West Australian Senate ballot paper.

Culleton was found to be ineligible to sit in the parliament by the High Court in February 2017 as he was and remains an undischarged bankrupt.

Nevertheless, Culleton’s name remains on the ballot.

The AEC is not an enforcement body, nor should it be but the way our electoral laws stand at the moment means that almost anyone who nominates will be placed on the ballot.

These are only the potential problems I am aware of. Having endured the excruciatingly embarrassing episode where 14 federal parliamentarians (five from Labor, four from the Coalition, with the remainder from the crossbenchers) all either resigned or were found by the High Court to be ineligible triggering a round of by elections and replacements in the Senate, one assumes the major parties might by now have their preselection and nomination processes in order.

But we all know about the uncertain out comes associated with assumptions.

For now, the foreseeable issue runs with the minor parties and independents who do not have the resources to ensure their nominees are eligible or appear not terribly interested in the process. The UAP has nominated 151 candidates. There are bound to be some very real s.44 problems (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) or (v) there alone.

It would only matter if they win, I hear you say. Well, not necessarily. We have preferential voting systems running in both houses. Take an example where a minor candidate gets say, eight per cent of the vote. What preferences don’t exhaust will be attributed to another party as hard votes. If that candidate is ineligible, then why should his or preferences be counted?

This is an untested area of s.44 but constitutional experts believe the problem exists and may need to be referred to the High Court for judgment. Some candidates for the major parties have already indicated that, in the event where they are narrowly defeated on the basis of preferences from a candidate whose illegibility to sit in the parliament is in question, they will seek to have the matter heard by the High Court in its role as the Court of Disputed Returns.

In short, it’s a mess and carries the possibility that our democratic processes and the institution of our parliament will be further debased.

The laughing stock that was the 45th Parliament may be just the undercard for a comedic farce without precedent before the 46th parliament is even convened.