When Kate Hulett launched her A Piece of Kate podcast as the central plank of her media strategy in her battle with Josh Wilson for the Federal seat of Fremantle, nobody would have foreseen that the fifth episode would contain the revelation that it could all be over in a week.
Sticking with her philosophy of transparency that was the one of the cornerstones of the campaign that lead to her going within a whisper of beating Simone McGurk in the State election, Hulett this morning told her A Piece of Kate listeners that she holds a British as well as an Australian passport.
Hulett was born in Armadale in Western Australia and inherited her British citizenship through her mother, she explains. This was not a problem in the State election, but it is a barrier for entry for the Federal parliament
Hulett now has one week to convince the UK authorities to accept the renunciation of her British passport or she will be precluded by section 44 of the Australian constitution from running for the lower house seat of Fremantle — nominations for the Federal elections close on April 10.
“As soon as I realised what [my dual citizenship] meant for my campaign I raced home, completed the application, paid the exorbitant fee and assumed that would be that,” Hulett tells her listeners.
“Then the email from the Home Office came back saying that it may take up to six months to receive official confirmation.
“I’ve spoken to constitutional lawyers in Australia and in the UK; I’ve written to UK MPs. I’ve written not one, not two, but three letters to the Home Office in the last week to clarify the point that this is democracy at stake.
“I’ve spoken to the British High Commission in Canberra and called the Home Office in the UK I don’t know how many times. I have taken every step I can to renounce my British citizenship before nominations close,” says Hulett.
If Hulett is forced to drop out of the race it will be a blow to her army of supporters who pushed her beyond the of wildest expectations in March to go within a few hundred votes of defeating a government minister in a deeply entrenched Labor seat.
They believe that the longtime Fremantle retailer has the momentum, the charisma and the message — she believes the major parties have become mired in process and addicted to power for its own sake — to challenge Wilson. This is despite the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy’s popularity in the electorate.
Even though Wilson is sitting on a margin of 16.9%, McGurk had an even greater advantage — she finished the last State election with a lead of 28%. This did not stop Hulett from almost pulling off one of the biggest upsets in WA political history.
A social media natural, Hulett’s warm, funny and, at times, edgy videos became a talking point during the election. Hulett was able to corral the long-list of local grievances held by many Freo voters and marry them with teal-adjacent concerns such as climate change and lack of transparency in government.
Indeed, the Kate and Abel owner drew so much media attention because of the close finish against McGurk, it prompted Hulett and her team to dream about going toe-to-toe with another Labor heavyweight, Assistant Energy Minister Wilson. This will be Wilson’s fourth election contest, having first been elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Fremantle in the 2016 Federal election. Hulett said in her podcast:
“Everything we do in this campaign is entirely about winning. I’m doing this from pure determination for a better outcome for our community, and I do not expect that some silly paperwork nonsense is going to stop me getting to election day and absolutely nailing the brief.”
Ironically, Hulett’s passport issue is exactly the same problem that faced Wilson, who in 2018 was forced to step down, triggering a by-election, which he won.
He was one of fifteen lower and upper house members of the Federal parliament who were caught up in what has come to be called “the parliamentary eligibility crisis”.
The High Court ordered senators to be replaced by candidates from the same ticket at the 2016 elections while the members of the House or Representatives were forced to re-contest their seats at by-elections.
Most pundits believe Wilson will be hard to topple because of the size and diversity of the Fremantle Federal seat; the cool inner-city crowd who passionately embraced Hulett’s fresh approach to politics and attacks on the fossil fuel industry may be heavily outweighed by the tradies, FIFOs and battlers who live on the fringes of the electorate.
However, Notre Dame’s Martin Drum is not quite so quick to write off Hulett. “If she exceeds expectations again that could be quite interesting,” Drum told The Fremantle Shipping News before the announcement that her nomination is up in the air.
Source: Wikipedia
Fingers crossed that the paperwork from the British High Commission comes through. Who wouldn’t want another election like the one we just had?
For many, the tightly contested State election prompted us to start talking not just about the candidates, but also to embark on confident conversations about such arcane matters as two-party preferred, the distribution of preferences and maverick counts. Some of us may even be ready to step into the shoes of the much respected and admired departing election analyst and commentator Antony Green.
* By Mark Naglazas
~ If you’d like to COMMENT on this or any of our stories, don’t hesitate to email our Editor.
~ WHILE YOU’RE HERE –
PLEASE HELP US TO GROW FREMANTLE SHIPPING NEWS
FSN is a reader-supported, volunteer-assisted online magazine all about Fremantle. Thanks for helping to keep FSN keeping on!
~ Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to receive your free copy of The Weekly Edition of the Shipping News each Friday!
