Liberal MP Chris Crewther may be ineligible to remain in Parliament over shares in company

A Liberal MP may be ineligible to remain in federal Parliament after he bought shares in a small pharmaceutical company that receives Commonwealth taxpayer funds.

Chris Crewther could be forced to resign from his marginal seat, threatening the survival of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government, which no longer has a majority in the House of Representatives.

In September Mr Crewther, who holds the seat of Dunkley in Melbourne’s south-east, disclosed that he and his wife Grace Do bought 50,000 shares in Gretals Australia for $25,000.

Labor is demanding he be referred to the High Court, which could spark a by-election in his marginal seat, which he holds by a slender 1.4 per cent margin.

 

Liberal MP Chris Crewther (pictured) may be ineligible to remain in federal Parliament after he bought shares in a small pharmaceutical company that receives Commonwealth funds

The 35-year-old former lawyer could be in breach of Section 44 of the Constitution because the pharmaceutical company has just 19 shareholders, which is below the 25-shareholder threshold.

In October 2017, the first-term backbencher told Parliament Gretals was ‘another fantastically innovative company’ on the Mornington Peninsula, south-east of Melbourne.

He told the chamber how he had even met with Gretals chief executive Alistair Cumming to ‘discuss how they will benefit’ from a $50,000 grant from the federal government’s Global Connections Fund. 

‘I congratulate Gretals Australia on their work and on the receipt of their grant,’ he said a year ago.

Chris Crewther (centre), who holds the seat of Dunkley in Melbourne's south-east, disclosed that he and his wife Grace Do (right) bought 50,000 shares in Gretals Australia for $25,000

Chris Crewther (centre), who holds the seat of Dunkley in Melbourne’s south-east, disclosed that he and his wife Grace Do (right) bought 50,000 shares in Gretals Australia for $25,000

‘I look forward to their continued success and advances.’

He told Daily Mail Australia on Friday he was confident he had not breached the Constitution. 

‘I have fully complied with my disclosure obligations and I am confident they do not raise any concerns,’ he said in a statement.

After making a parliamentary speech praising Gretals’s new ‘soil analysis system’, he tweeted that he was ‘proud to tell my colleagues’. 

Mr Crewther faces being referred to the High Court, with the Morrison Government no longer commanding a majority in the House of Representatives following the Wentworth by-election loss in October in Sydney’s east.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, who holds a neighbouring electorate to Mr Crewther, is demanding he be referrred to the High Court, along with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton who has a stake in a taxpayer-subsided childcare centre.

‘Any time a serious doubt arises about the eligibility of an MP, it should immediately be referred to the High Court,’ he told reporters on Friday.

The 35-year-old former lawyer (pictured with Prime Minister Scott Morrison) could be in breach of Section 44 of the Constitution because the pharmaceutical company has just 19 shareholders, which is below the 25-shareholder threshold.

The 35-year-old former lawyer (pictured with Prime Minister Scott Morrison) could be in breach of Section 44 of the Constitution because the pharmaceutical company has just 19 shareholders, which is below the 25-shareholder threshold.

Professor George Williams, a constitutional law expert from the University of New South Wales, said the MP was potentially ineligible to remain in Parliament.

‘What I can say is that if money has been paid to this company, in which he is one of a few shareholders, as part of an agreement with the Commonwealth, then that could give rise to disqualification under Section 44,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘I am yet though to see evidence of that.’

University of Sydney constitutional law expert Professor Anne Twomey said Gretals did not have a direct contract with the public service of the Commonwealth and pointed out the University of Melbourne received the grant and not the company.

After making a parliamentary speech praising Gretals's new 'soil analysis system', he tweeted that he was 'proud to tell my colleagues'

After making a parliamentary speech praising Gretals’s new ‘soil analysis system’, he tweeted that he was ‘proud to tell my colleagues’

‘So to trigger constitutional disqualification, you would have to argue that Mr Crewther, by holding shares in a company that may benefit in the future through intellectual property rights from a research project conducted by a university which is partly funded by the Commonwealth, holds an indirect pecuniary interest in the funding agreement between the university and the Commonwealth,’ she said.

‘This seems to me to be quite a remote connection, and it is therefore unlikely to result in disqualification, unless other relevant facts arise.’ 

While Mr Crewther’s Dunkley electorate has been held by the Liberal Party since 1996, he won the seat for the first time in 2016 with a bare 1.4 per cent margin.  

Since July 2016, 15 federal MPs have been forced out of Parliament for breaching section 44 of the Constitution. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk