In the last two weeks, the Greens have lost both co-deputy leaders in the Senate because they were dual nationals. Their personal tears would have us believe that Waters and Ludlam have somehow been victims of some sort of injustice, because they didn't know they were still citizens of Canada and New Zealand.
That is total rubbish.
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Larissa Waters resigns
The deputy Greens leader becomes the second to resign in less than a week.
Anybody who nominates for election to the Australian Parliament, who was born outside this country, should be aware of the law regarding dual citizenship. Since 1992, the law on this has been very clear.
If they are not, the Australian Electoral Commission makes it explicit in a "backgrounder" document available to all potential candidates.
As the AEC says: "It is a candidate's own responsibility to ensure that his or her qualifications for candidacy meet the requirements set out in the Constitution and the Act.
"With respect to s. 44(i) of the Constitution, intending candidates holding dual citizenship should take 'all reasonable steps', as per the ruling of the High Court in Sykes v Cleary, to renounce their other citizenship before nomination."
Someone who assumes they were no longer a citizen of another country simply because they took Australian citizenship has clearly not taken reasonable steps to renounce their other citizenship. Or, to be blunt, they clearly are not fit for office because they are unwilling or unable to follow simple and clear advice.
They are not the victims of any injustice at all. In fact, the victims of the great Senate electoral fraud are the voters, and not those who are wrongly elected. That is because, unlike in the House of Representatives, there is no by-election, just a recount of votes.
The votes won by ineligible candidates simply get passed down the ticket to the next person from their party. However, the person who sits at the top of a party's senate electoral ticket is generally the most charismatic of that party's candidates. There is no guarantee that a ticket headed by someone who was second on the list would necessarily gain as many votes.
In last year's Queensland senate election, the Greens ticket was headed by Larissa Waters, who had - wrongly as it now appears - been a senator since 2011. Without casting any aspersions on her likely successor, Andrew Bartlett, there is no guarantee the Greens would have pulled as many votes had he been at the head of the ticket. One presumes that is why the Greens chose her ahead of him.
So, once again, one of the fringe parties has hoodwinked the electors by offering up high profile candidates who should never have been standing for election at all. This disadvantages other parties who might well have won senate seats had the votes fallen slightly differently.
In Queensland in 2016, Larissa Waters and the Greens polled 6.92 per cent of the senate vote. That was not enough for a full senate quota, but they got the seat after the distribution of preferences. Without her profile and charisma, they could easily have polled one or two percent less, and the seat could possibly have gone to another party.
All of this denies the voters, and other parties, the opportunity for a fair and proper choice.
There is no need to change the Constitution to allow dual nationals to stand. The law is a good one.
Instead, we should change the law so that votes won by an ineligible candidate should not be counted in a recount. That way parties which fail to obey the law by nominating ineligible candidates, will not get to profit from their actions.
Finally, Waters and Ludlam should be asked to repay the money they have wrongly received in salaries and emoluments. That is what would happen to someone on social security who has received money in error.
It is what has happened to Rod Culleton in Western Australia, and I can see no reason why this pair should be treated any differently.
Bill O'Chee is a former Nationals senator for Queensland
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