Australian federal Parliamentary committees have subpoena power, and have used it, although rarely and as a last resort. There’s probably a fair bit of untested legal ground there.

I still remember a witness being asked to identify the capacity in which he was appearing, to which he replied ‘under duress’.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 3:24 AM on June 20 [3 favorites]

It's very early morning in the Western Hemisphere right now, and so I briefly hallucinated I had woken up in a very different universe.

So he's a former Liberal now in the National Party? That would be like a Tory crossing the bench to join the Lib Dems in the UK, right?
posted by LeRoienJaune at 4:11 AM on June 20 [8 favorites]

So he's a former Liberal now in the National Party? That would be like a Tory crossing the bench to join the Lib Dems in the UK, right?

No, the Liberals are a party of the right in Australia, like the Nationals. For decades they've been in a formal coalition, with only a few breaks. "A Coalition government" in Australia implies the Lib-Nats.

In the UK context it's more like a Tory joining Reform.
posted by rory at 4:15 AM on June 20 [6 favorites]

I don’t know whether it would land with Australians, but if they had a certain sense of humor, the Court could tell him to ‘go fly a kite’.
posted by jamjam at 10:02 AM on June 20 [7 favorites]

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