WTF Is Going On In The Senate

You ready? OK, here goes.

It all starts in the red place: the Senate. Earlier this year the entire Australian Senate was dissolved for the July election, meaning candidates didn't need as many votes as they normally would in order to get elected.

Mick Tsikas / AAPIMAGE

The government had rolled the dice, thinking that if it could clear out the Senate of those pesky crossbenchers, it would have an easier time passing its agenda, especially when it came to re-establishing the controversial anti-union construction watchdog the ABCC.

Did that happen? LMAO no, not at all.

Instead, a bunch of fringe MPs got elected, forming a huge crossbench. This meant the government, if it didn't have Labor's or the Greens' support, needed 9 out of 11 crossbenchers to get any legislation passed.

Then, two weeks ago, this guy, Family First senator Bob Day, announced he was resigning because his old business empire went bust (ironically it's a construction business).

Mick Tsikas / AAPIMAGE

The PM freaked out! Turnbull needed Day's vote on the ABCC and on the marriage equality plebiscite. So Bob Day walked back his resignation, telling everyone he'd hang around for a while.

Tristar Pictures / Via giphy.com

Then, Day struck again, announcing on Tuesday, that actually, on second thought, maybe he should resign immediately.

In any normal world, Family First and Day could simply choose his replacement... but this ain't a normal world any more.

See, it turned out Day had a possible financial interest in his old Adelaide electorate office (the rent on which is paid by the Commonwealth) and that's a big no-no, because you can't be an MP while also receiving a benefit from the government.

It means he may have never been qualified to be elected in the first place

Day will now be referred to the high court, which will decide whether he was qualified to have been elected or not. Now, if he wasn't, there'll be a recount of South Australian ballots which, in an unlikely scenario, may see the seat fall to Labor.

Lukas Coch / AAPIMAGE

Then a subplot emerged. The recently departed solicitor general Justin Gleeson had foreshadowed a few weeks ago that the attorney general was "actively involved" in a matter to do with the composition of the Senate.

Bevan Shields @BevanShields

Reminder: Justin Gleeson said this on October 14. Government may have known about this for weeks and said nothing… https://t.co/JqQS07zgWK

06:57 AM - 01 Nov 2016

Was Gleeson talking about Bob Day here? Had the government been quietly sitting on the issue so it could get Day to vote for its ABCC legislation?

PSYCHE! It wasn't Bob Day! It turns out it was One Nation senator Rod Culleton!

Mick Tsikas / AAPIMAGE

See, Culleton has been locked in a legal battle with a former business associate, and an allegation has emerged that the One Nation senator from WA was elected while convicted of an offence that carries a sentence of more than one year in jail, which is another big no-no. (The conviction has since been annulled.)

On Wednesday, Culleton hit back, saying he'll wait to see what the high court rules.

"This is a constitutional matter, and boy am I sharp on the Constitution (the real law of Australia) so this is right up my veggie patch," he said.

So tl;dr: TWO senators are now facing the high court, with recounts in South Australia and Western Australia possible, and the Senate hangs in the balance.

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