04-07-2025
Tasmanian Labor says it's confident Jess Munday is eligible to contest this month's state election
The Tasmanian Labor Party says speculation about the eligibility of one of its Franklin candidates Jess Munday should be over, after the party released legal advice stating she was able to contest the July 19 state election.
The Liberals have claimed the Unions Tasmania secretary's position on the WorkCover Tasmania board means she falls foul of section 32 of the state's Constitution Act, and is ineligible to be elected.
It released legal opinion from barrister Chris Gunson SC that said he believed Ms Munday was ineligible to nominate for Franklin, and to be elected as an MP, because of her appointment to WorkCover Tasmania's board.
Mr Gunson said an application to the Supreme Court of Tasmania contesting her eligibility would be "likely to succeed" and would likely lead to the results in Franklin being "declared void", and a by-election held.
He said it was possible Ms Munday's involvement in Labor's statewide election campaign could lead to the Supreme Court declaring all election results void, sending voters back to the polls again, but he said it was "impossible to make any reasonable assessment of that risk" at this stage.
"To do so would be merely speculative absent all necessary facts," Mr Gunson's opinion, provided to the ABC, said.
But on Friday afternoon Labor released its own advice, prepared by former solicitor-general Michael O'Farrell SC, which found the act "does not operate to prohibit Ms Munday from being capable of being elected to, or of holding a seat in the House of Assembly".
The argument surrounds Section 32 of the state's Constitution Act, with the Liberals arguing Ms Munday is ineligible because she holds an "office of profit under the Crown".
Labor points to an amendment passed in 1944, the Constitution (State Employees) Act, which states that the section does not apply to people who hold "any office of profit or employment in the public service of the state, or in any business or undertaking carried on by any person, body or authority on behalf of the state".
In his opinion Mr O'Farrell said he did not think "there can be any doubt that the WorkCover Board is engaged in an undertaking, and carries that out as a body or authority on behalf of the state".
"Accordingly, in my view, Ms Munday is a person to whom [the 1944 amendment] applies," his opinion said.
On Friday morning Liberal MLC Jo Palmer criticised Labor for not producing legal advice earlier, saying voters casting their ballots at pre-poll booths around the state needed to know whether Ms Munday was eligible.
She did not answer whether the party would lodge a Supreme Court challenge to Ms Munday's eligibility, while a Liberal spokesperson said the party was considering its options.
The party would have 90 days after the election to lodge an appeal.
Labor MLC Sarah Lovell said there was no question over Ms Munday's eligibility, and the Liberal Party's questioning of it had "blown up in their face".
"We have been 100 per cent confident in Jess Munday's eligibility as a candidate, there has been no question for us because we understand the law, we know there are provisions in the act that leave no doubt over her eligibility to be a candidate," Ms Lovell said.
"We have sought advice today because the Liberal Party has stooped to such lows and that behaviour needs to be called out.
"This was the only way to call that out, there should be no question for anyone now about Jess's eligibility to be a candidate."
Ms Munday accused the Liberals of engaging in "Trump style politics of misinformation and negativity and desperation that don't belong in Tasmanian politics".
"I have always had confidence in my eligibility and my ability to represent the people of Franklin well in the parliament," she said.
