Far-right policitician and noted egg-magnet Fraser Anning is running a candidate named Shane Van Duren in ACT, a man notable for having a conviction for assaulting a police officer and serving 200 hours of community service.
It’s an exciting echo of the controversy over white supremacist Jim Saleam, who spent three years in jail for attempted murder and property offences and ran in the Longman by election last year.
And this raises a weird question: can someone who’s actually be convicted of a crime serve in federal parliament?
And the short answer is: yes.
Huh.
Someone with a criminal conviction can’t run for public office in some states – Western Australia has the strictest conditions – but the rules are different for federal elections.
It’s all in Section 44 of the Constitution. You know, the thing that forced all those parliamentarians out last year? That bit.
The relevant section is this:
44. Any person who… (ii.) Is attainted of treason, or has been convicted and is under sentence, or subject to be sentenced, for any offence punishable under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State by imprisonment for one year or shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.
And heck, there’s already a jailbird in the senate: Derryn Hinch has done time for breaching court orders and contempt of court, and is currently a senator for Victoria. And used his debut speech in parliament to name pedophiles under parliamentary privilege, to the surprise of no-one.
See, once you’ve served the sentence then you’re cool to run (as long as that sentence wasn’t for treason). However, if you’ve got a conviction pending with a 12 month or more potential sentence then you’re ineligible.
That’s how WA lost One Nation-turned-independent senator Ron Culleton, AKA The Guy What Knocked Over All Them Coffee Cups That Time, who was convicted of larceny at the time of his election.
This is never not magical.
So, to come back to Van Duren: there’s still a question mark since he told Nine reporters that he wasn’t sure whether his suspended sentence was still in place, and that would potentially bring Section 44 into play if said sentence was for more than 12 months.
And you’d think that Anning – a man whose entire odious political career happened only because One Nation failed to check that Malcolm Roberts was eligible to run as a senator – might have investigated that issue.
However, since Van Duren won’t actually be elected it won’t end up being an issue. Still, it must be reassuring for all our currently incarcerated citizens that a second career in federal politics might await them when they rejoin society.