An attempt to stop a Queenslander being parachuted into a NSW seat in the Senate vacated by a One Nation senator has failed.<\/p>\n
Pauline Hanson’s former advisor, Sean Bell, was officially nominated to fill the vacancy despite him still being “in the process of moving” to the state he will now represent.<\/p>\n
Mr Bell’s nomination was ratified in a rare joint sitting of NSW Parliament on Thursday amid protestations by One Nation’s former state leader Mark Latham.<\/p>\n
Mr Latham, who quit the party in 2023, questioned Mr Bell’s eligibility, saying he was as “Queenslander as a Pauline Hanson fish and chips shop”.<\/p>\n
He claimed there was an implied right to equal representation of the states under the Australian Constitution.<\/p>\n
But Mr Latham’s attempt to stop the nomination was blocked by 100 votes to three.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mark Latham questioned Mr Bell’s eligibility. (ABC News: Gavin Coote)<\/p>\n
While the constitution does not require a Senate candidate to live in the state or territory they are standing for, it is rare.<\/p>\n
During the joint sitting, Labor frontbencher Penny Sharpe acknowledged it was an unusual situation.<\/p>\n
“It is a bit of a surprise to some people in this place that it is possible for a senator who resides in a different state to be elected for a different state,” Ms Sharpe said.<\/p>\n
Bell ‘in process of moving’<\/p>\n
One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson announced the nomination after former senator Warwick Stacey quit parliament due to “personal health issues”.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear whether Mr Bell has ever lived in NSW.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Ms Hanson did not answer specific questions put by the ABC.<\/p>\n
“In response to your questions, I can confirm Sean Bell is currently in the process of moving to NSW.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson nominated Mr Bell. (AAP: Brian Cassey)<\/p>\n
When confirming Mr Bell’s appointment on Tuesday, Ms Hanson said Mr Bell “played a key role in One Nation’s rise”.<\/p>\n
“I have every confidence he will represent the people of NSW with conviction, skill, dedication and the conservative values which made this nation great,” Ms Hanson said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“He was instrumental in our successful campaign to defeat the voice to Parliament, as well as in delivering our strongest-ever result at the Federal election earlier this year.”<\/p>\n
Mr Bell said his priorities in the role would be “ending mass immigration, wasteful spending, and ideological agendas that punish working Australians”.<\/p>\n
Mr Stacey had been elected as the sixth senator for NSW after the May federal election.<\/p>\n
The result came as a surprise, giving One Nation a fourth seat in the upper house, which is one short of having party status in the Senate.<\/p>\n
However, his career in politics was short-lived, with the former army officer quitting just three months after his election.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, I will be unable to fully dedicate myself to the role as I deal with my personal health issues,” he said at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attempt to stop a Queenslander being parachuted into a NSW seat in the Senate vacated by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,5725,44,5727,102229,102232,60504,14754,102231,25271,102230,102228,71551,60507],"class_list":{"0":"post-152682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mark-latham","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nsw-parliament","13":"tag-nsw-senate","14":"tag-nsw-upper-house","15":"tag-one-nation","16":"tag-pauline-hanson","17":"tag-pauline-hanson-fish-and-chip-shop","18":"tag-penny-sharpe","19":"tag-queenslander","20":"tag-sean-bell","21":"tag-senator","22":"tag-warwick-stacey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}