On Thursday, the Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives, the Hon Tony Smith MP, named the 28 July 2018 as the proposed date of the five federal by-elections to be held in the seats of Perth, Fremantle, Braddon, Longman and Mayo.
The 28 July 2018 was scheduled to be the last day of the Australian Labor Party National Conference, leading to claims of political interference, with the ALP National President the Hon Mark Butler MP stating:
“Today’s by-elections announcement is a disgraceful indictment on the Turnbull Government?—?it stinks of interference by Turnbull with the independent electoral commission.
This delay will leave about 500,000 Australians unrepresented for nearly three months.”
Prime Minister the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP was quick to responded to Labor’s complaints, by reminding them of the opposition’s refusal to deal with illegitimate ALP members earlier, stating:
“Bill Shorten… thought he could get away with it and leave them there, sitting there, drawing their parliamentary salary, spending their parliamentary expenses, for all of those months when it was clear that the highest court in the land had said they were not eligible to sit there,” the Prime Minister said of Labor MPs.
“So, why are the by-elections being held in July? Why are they being held in 2018? They are being held now because Bill Shorten did not do the right thing by the Australian people and by the constitution and ensure his ineligible members resigned last year, when John Alexander did or when Barnaby Joyce did.”
The ALP National Conference is held every three years and sees Labor delegates from all over the country gather together to agree upon a National Platform for the party. At this stage it appears the ALP will move the date of the conference to allow the party to instead focus on the by-elections.
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