Australian Labor Party (ALP) Member of Parliament (MP) David Feeney has resigned from federal politics, triggering a by-election in the seat of Batman, which the ALP fears it could lose to the Greens.
Feeney last year became embroiled in the dual citizenship fiasco after failing to locate paperwork confirming his citizenship status and his eligibility to sit in the parliament.
In December last year, he was referred to the court by federal parliament after being unable to produce documents confirming he had renounced any foreign citizenship in 2007.
At a preliminary hearing in the Australian High Court last month, Feeney’s legal team confirmed he was still unable to produce any documentary evidence from British or Irish authorities that he took steps to renounce his citizenship and entitlements.
Feeney yesterday told reporters that since the necessary records could not be produced: “I am unable to disprove that I am a dual citizen.”
“On this basis, having regard for my duty under section 44 of the constitution, I have today written to the speaker of the House of Representatives resigning as an MP effective immediately,” Feeney said.
“I have spoken to my family and I have decided that I will not be seeking ALP preselection for this by-election. Today I have written to the Victorian ALP state secretary to that effect,” he added.
He said the ALP deserved a candidate in Batman that was able to give “the months and the years ahead 150 percent of their effort, their commitment and their passion. After careful reflection, I don’t believe I’m able to offer this.”
ALP sources have told Guardian Australia that the likely candidate to replace Feeney in the seat is the Australian Council of Trade Unions president Ged Kearney, who was looking at a state seat, but has been prevailed upon to run federally.
The federal seat of Batman is in the same geographical area as the Victorian State seat of Northcote, which the Greens snatched from the Victorian Labor government in a by-election in November last year.
Federally, the Greens fancy their chances of taking Batman from the ALP, and party insiders concede privately that outcome is entirely possible.
Kearney, with her campaign background, is regarded as a stronger candidate than Feeney in the Melbourne electorate, which includes the biggest Greens branch in the country, and a substantial, established field operation.
The Greens candidate in the seat will be Alex Bhathal, who went close to taking the seat from Labor at the last federal election.
While there is some criticism about Bhathal at the local level, she has the support of the Greens federal team and party sources say the local backbiting is from a minority of members.
The Liberals are unlikely to field a candidate, which will increase the difficulty of Labor’s bid to hold the seat.
The Victorian ALP is in the middle of a bare-knuckle factional battle triggered by a proposed power realignment between right and left wing powerbrokers.
Before Feeney’s resignation, Labor leader Bill Shorten sent a public signal for the first time that the federal ALP could seek to stop the controversial Adani coalmine — a hardening of the party’s stance.
The Greens have been running an anti-Adani campaign in the suburbs of Melbourne covered by the Batman boundaries for almost 12 months, associating Labor with the project.
The Greens campaign will be amplified by local activist groups campaigning against the controversial Queensland mine project.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in