Job sharing a seat in parliament won't happen - in this election anyway

Two women hoping to job share a senator position in federal parliament have abandoned their bid to run in this election after it was discovered one of them may be a dual citizen. Login or signup to continue reading Lucy Bradlow and Bronwen Bock took their case to the Federal Court after the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) initially rejected their application to run two people for a single seat. Their Better Together Party was successfully registered with 1554 members but court proceedings were delayed by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred after the commonwealth asked to join the case.

They said they were "deeply disappointed" their campaign had come to an end - for the May 3 election anyway. "We always knew this campaign was going to be an uphill battle but even we were unprepared for the amount of hurdles we faced," they said in a statement. "From the beginning of our campaign we said we would only run if we could run as a job share pair.



"We feel like it would be disingenuous if we continued our campaign with only a single candidate." They have left the door open to pushing for job sharing a Senate spot after the election. "We are hopeful that we can continue the legal case after the conclusion of the election," they said.

Section 44 of the constitution prevents dual citizens from sitting in parliament. The rule prompted a political fiasco in 2017 and triggered three by-elections when it became clear seven MPs had dual citizenship , including then-deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce. It's understood Lucy Bradlow, whose family came to Australia from South Africa in the 1980s, may hold dual citizenship and was unable to provide proof she had renunciated South African citizenship in time to conclude the court case before the election.

The Australian Government Solicitor was contacted for comment. The job sharing case is scheduled to be heard again by the Federal Court on May 19, more the two weeks after the federal election. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team.

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