The Australian Prime Minister who has been acting up a waltzing Matilda by calling everyone "mate" has done a Hitler.  He has done a Hitler by attempting to affect the membership of parliament by legislation.

The facts uncovered by Senator Faulkner seem to be as follows.

1. Parliamentarian Entsch was company secretary and 50% shareholder of a Cape York Concrete.
2. During 1969 -1978 MP Entsch was an RAAF aircraft fitter..
3. The RAAF awarded a contract for supply of $A175,500 concrete by CYC.
4. The CYC contract was awarded without competitive tenders.
5. The Australian Constitution (Section 44(v)) states that any person with any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth otherwise than as a member and in common with the other members of an incorporated company consisting of more than twenty-five persons shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.
6. The Prime Minister, acting under the umbrella of section 47 of the constitution which reads Until the Parliament otherwise provides, any question respecting the qualification of a senator or member of the House or Representatives, or respecting a vacancy in either House of the Parliament, and any question of a disputed election to either House, shall be determined by the House in which the question arises has caused the house of Representatives to determine that Mr. Entsch does not have any direct or indirect pecuniary interest with the public service of the commonwealth by reason of any contract .. and is therefore not incapable of sitting as a member..

SPIN notes that the wording of Section 47 is ambiguous.  One intent of the section would have been to provide a flexible method for solving novel situations.  The meaning that Prime Minister has allocated contradicts an existing constitutional rule.

Why did SPIN draw a parallel with Hitler?  Well, you see, Adolf didn't win the elections of 1933, he was a few seats short of a majority.  He achieved his majority by ordering the police to arrest communists, including (quite incidental I am sure) the communist party members in the Reichstag.

Neat Huh?   Hitler broke no laws, did nothing illegal.

But think what Johhny Hitler could do if he is had a few dubious seats after an election.

46. Until the Parliament otherwise provides, any person declared by this Constitution to be incapable of sitting as a senator or as a member of the House of Representatives shall, for every day on which he so sits, be liable to pay the sum of one hundred pounds to any person who sues for it in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Spin can not calculate whether it is worth sueing.  The answers to two important questions would settle the matter.

1. Can the penalty be upgraded proportionally with Senator's pay?  Senator's pay was 400 pounds.  We multiply by 200 to give a Senator's pay nowadays, ($80,000) can we multiply the 100 pounds by 200 to get $20,000 penalty per day?
2. In a conspiracy all conspirators are judged on the crime conspired towards.  Can SPIN charge all members of the coalition $20,000 per sitting day?

Despite the media hype, SPIN believes that the Serbians won the war.

Possibly there are a few other people in our great democracies who think that the news reports coming out about the Balkans are just a bit too "pat".

We always knew that representative democracy had a few problems.  Perhaps it is time that we the people took a more direct interest in the affairs of government.

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