The man attempting to have Josh Frydenberg disqualified from parliament has launched a defamation action against Scott Morrison after the prime minister described the move on the Treasurer as “anti-Semitic”.
Climate activist Michael Staindl, a resident of Frydenberg’s electorate of Kooyong, last year filed a petition alleging the Treasurer was disqualified by section 44 of the constitution because he is a citizen of Hungary due to his mother’s citizenship status.
Frydenberg denies the claim.
Staindl alleges Morrison defamed him at a press conference on December 24 in South Australia, during which the Prime Minister described the action against Frydenberg as “the most despicable case that I’ve seen undertaken against a member”.
“You know, I’ve called it out as being anti-Semitic, and I still think that it is,” Morrison said, without naming Staindl. A transcript of the comments is still available on the Prime Minister’s website.
Bleyer Lawyers, representing Staindl, claim that the imputations include that Staindl is anti-Semitic; discriminates against people of the Jewish faith; dislikes the Treasurer because he is Jewish; and is motivated by his hatred of Jews in bringing the proceeding against the Treasurer.
Staindl’s claim continues: “The highly sensitive nature of your comments and the inference that our client dislikes people of the Jewish faith has the potential to subject our client to hate speech, violence and vilification.”
Staindl, a climate activist, has previously maintained that he was motivated to file his section 44 case against Frydenberg because he felt “betrayed” by what he considered Frydenberg’s lack of action on climate change.
“I think he’s consistently betrayed me, the electorate and the country on climate change,” he told The Guardian last year.
Frydenberg has contested the claim that he had Hungarian citizenship by descent, maintaining that his family was officially stateless when they arrived from Hungary after World War II. The episode painfully re-opened the plight of European Jews who fled the Holocaust.
Staindl’s lawyers’ demands include that Morrison publicly apologise for his statements with an agreed form of words and that the Prime Minister pays damages of $50,000, as well as Staindl’s reasonable legal expenses.
The citizenship case is ongoing and will be back before the Federal Court in Melbourne next week.
Crikey has contacted Scott Morrison’s office for comment.
Staindl is unarguably correct when he says Frydenberg has betrayed his constituents and the nation over climate change. Under Turnbull, Frydenberg put together the NEG which, while not perfect, was at least a start in providing a mechanism that could be adapted and adjusted as required. But he has failed to back it – letting it lapse in the face of the hard right Nationals and Liberals in their caucus room, and consigning it to the morgue under Morrison. At the time of its birth, Frydenberg was selling it as the wonderpolicy to respond to climate change. Since Turnbull was rolled, he has said nothing. If that’s not a betrayal of his beliefs and the issue, I don’t know what is.
Did I miss the High Court decision that cleared Joshy? If not, then there are clearly doubts about his citizenship and it’s despicable that people try to argue that Frydenberg’s claims shouldn’t be tested. It’s almost like they only have a small majority and would prefer not to know the truth.
Scottie from marketing is sort of friends with joshie from accounts.
When someone says “Hey, your mother may have been stateless when she became an Australian Refo or Displaced Person DP and then Australian citizen, but, the mongrel country that declared all Jews and Gypsies still alive after the 3rd Reich had done its worst, stateless, has changed its mind.”
Don’t you think it is logical that anyone in receipt of a gift (citizenship), that a formal “Thanks, but, Bugger Off for insulting me and all my family” would do the trick.
There is nothing anti-Semitic in saying “have told the Hungarian Government, you don’t want to be a citizen in accordance with the constitution or not?”
Scottie from marketing lives near Cronulla and as a Caucasian in a prosperity cult and a first fleeter and currently the occupant of Kirrabilli House on $11,000 per week with all expenses covered.
Personally, I don’t think scottie from marketing is capable of recognizing an ordered thought pattern, let alone being able to recognize an anti-Semetic attack if he saw one.
Isn’t poor Joshie also a citizen of Israel, given automatically, because of his faith and used to expand Israel by throwing Palestinians out of their homes and replacing them with “Israelis” from any other countries?