Liberal MP Chris Crewther faces High Court referral over Section 44

Bob Katter won’t vote to send Liberal MP Chris Crewther to the High Court giving the PM enough votes to block any Labor push.

Dunkley Liberal MP Chris Crewther is at risk of falling foul of Section 44.

Maverick independent MP Bob Katter says he will not support partisan moves to send Liberal MP Chris Crewther to the High Court, giving the Morrison government enough votes to block any push to refer him under section 44 of the Constitution.

Labor is calling on the government to test Mr Crewther’s eligibility following revelations he and his wife hold shares in a company that has received government grants.

Mr Katter told The Australian he “would not” support referral motions targeting Mr Crewther or Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who is also facing questions over an arrangement between the commonwealth and his Family Trust.

“Politics is not about this sort of rubbish,” Mr Katter said.

“I’d say three-quarters of the parliament can be hooked if you start interpreting that section the way people are interpreting it.”

When independent Wentworth candidate Kerryn Phelps enters federal parliament, as she is expected to do at the end of this month, the government will hold just 75 seats on the floor of the House of Representatives, including Speaker Tony Smith.

Labor, which holds 69 seats, would need each of the six crossbenchers to vote with it to be successful in referring Mr Dutton or Mr Crewther to the High Court.

While Mr Katter assured voters he would be in federal parliament for the entire final sitting fortnight, he warned he was not “going to act logically and reasonably if the government doesn’t do the right thing by the people I represent that are dying”

Scott Morrison today dismissed concerns Mr Crewther could be disqualified over his interest in a company, Gretals Australia, as Labor called for him to be referred to the High Court.

Mr Crewther’s seat is one of the most marginal in the country. Mr Crewther declared his interest in Gretals Australia, a local pharmaceutical company which received a $400,000 linkage grant in the past two years, to the House of Representatives on September 6.

It was added to the Register of Members’ Interests on September 10.

Questions had also been raised about a government-funded $50,000 Global Connections Fund grant the company had also been initially approved for. But The Australian has confirmed the money was ultimately never paid to Gretals Australia as the project was not ready, and therefore there was no agreement.

An ASIC extract of Gretals Australia’s shareholders shows Mr Crewther, together with his wife Grace, is one of 18 shareholders and they have $50,000 worth of shares together.

The Constitution says an MP cannot have a direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Commonwealth if it has fewer than 25 shareholders.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus has called for the government to refer Mr Crewther and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to the High Court over Section 44 concerns.

“After Mr Dutton, Mr Crewther is the second Coalition MP carrying serious doubts over his eligibility to even be in Parliament. Scott Morrison has truly lost control,” he said.

“Scott Morrison must refer Mr Crewther to the High Court, along with Peter Dutton. If he does not, he will continue to be an illegitimate leader running a protection racket for his illegitimate government.”

The government would face an uphill battle to keep Mr Crewther’s seat. It shifted from a 1.3 Liberal margin to a notional 1.3 per margin for Labor after the 2017-16 federal seat redistribution.

NSW Law professor George Williams said more information had to come to hand about Mr Crewether’s case but he could face disqualification if documents show Gratels Australia made an agreement with the Commonwealth.

“If there is documentation showing an agreement for the payments of money from the Commonwealth, then this MP could be disqualified and should be referred to the High Court,” he told The Australian.

“There is more to come to light about this matter ... I have no doubt there are other MPs who could be caught unaware by companies (they have invested in) that might even have a minor agreement with the Commonwealth.”

Professor Williams has advocated changes to Section 44 following the dual citizenship scandal. He said MPs should not profit from the Commonwealth but that the current rules around members’ interests were unclear.

“It is very poorly worded and it is not that clear how far it goes,” he said.

University of Sydney constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said the case against Mr Crewther was “unlikely to succeed” because there was only a “remote connection” between Gretals shareholders and the Commonwealth.

The $400,000 grant received by Gretals Australia was distributed by the University of Melbourne, not the government, and Professor Twomey said any “agreement” with the Commonwealth was probably with the university and not the company Mr Crewther has invested in.

“In this case it appears (subject to any further information being provided) that the relevant company, Gretals Australia Pty Ltd, does not have an agreement with the public service of the commonwealth,” Professor Twomey said in a statement.

“To trigger constitutional disqualification, you would have to argue that Mr Crewther, by holding shares in a company that may benefit in the future through intellectual property rights from a research project conducted by a university which is partly funded by the commonwealth, holds an indirect pecuniary interest in the funding agreement between the university and the commonwealth.

“This seems to me to be quite a remote connection and it is therefore unlikely to result in disqualification (unless other relevant facts, about which I am unaware, arise.) While the point is arguable, at least according to the current available information, it is unlikely to succeed.”

Professor Twomey also said a previous $50,000 grant was distributed by the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) and therefore the “agreement” was presumably between ATSE and the government, not Gretals Australia.

Mr Dutton is the beneficiary of the RHT Family Trust, the trustee of which is RHT Investments, which owns the Camelia Avenue Childcare Centre in Queensland and which receives federal money in the form of the Child Care Subsidy.

The childcare centre also ­received more than $15,000 under the government’s Inclusion Development Fund to provide a teacher for children with special needs — an arrangement that ­required a separate agreement.