Heather Hill

Heather Hill (born 9 August 1960) is a former English-Australian politician.

Hill was born in 1960 in London. In 1971 her family moved to Australia, arriving in Brisbane, Queensland on 6 October of that year. She attended school in Brisbane. In January 1981, Hill (then Heather Rafe) married Ken Hill, an Australian citizen, with whom she would later have two children, Joshua and Hayley.

One Nation and Senate Election

Hill was the manager of the Family Resource Centre in Ipswich for six years from 1991. The Liberal-Nationals coalition government withdrew funding from the centre in 1997, spurring Hill to become involved with Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party.

Hill intended to stand for election, but to do so she had to be an Australian citizen. She applied for Australian citizenship in January 1998, which was granted on 20 January. She then attended a citizenship ceremony where she was presented with a certificate after reciting the pledge of loyalty to Australia. However in the time between her application for citizenship and the granting of her request, Hill needed to travel to New Zealand for family reasons, and applied for a British passport. She used this passport to travel on 4 February, since although an Australian passport had been issued to her on 3 February, it had not been sent to her by the time she left.

Hill stood as the One Nation candidate for the Legislative Assembly of Queensland in the stong labour seat of Ipswich in the 1998 Queensland election. She lost narrowly to Labor candidate David Hamill.

Hill was initially encouraged by Hanson to stand as the One Nation candidate for the Australian House of Representatives in the Division of Oxley in the 1998 federal election, but Hill declined. Instead she stood as a One Nation candidate to the Australian Senate in Queensland. Hill was the first of five One Nation candidates on the ballot paper, and at the election on 3 October 1998, Hill received 295,903 votes, enough to fill one quota (the required number of votes needed to be elected under the Single Transferable Vote system). Accordingly, Hill was declared a Senator-elect.

Eligibility decided

After the election, on 18 November 1998, concerns were raised about Hill's citizenship status. Hill still retained her United Kingdom citizenship, and had attained dual citizenship when her Australian citizenship was granted.

The Constitution of Australia prevents anyone who is a citizen of a foreign country from being elected to the Parliament of Australia, and there were concerns that Hill's dual citizenship could contravene this provision. On 19 November Hill contacted the High Commission of the United Kingdom in Brisbane, and arranged to renounce her United Kingdom citizenship. However, on 30 November Hill's election was challenged on the basis of her dual citizenship.

On 23 June 1999 the High Court of Australia, sitting in its capacity as the Court of Disputed Returns, decided in "Sue v Hill" that Hill's election was invalid because, at the time of her election, she was still a citizen of the United Kingdom. The landmark case decided for the first time that the United Kingdom was a power foreign to Australia.

Aftermath

Len Harris, One Nation's number two candidate on the Senate ballot, was appointed in Hill's place, taking up his seat on 2 July 1999. Hill became Harris' advisor, having previously been appointed to One Nation's national executive. However, Hill had a falling out with the party after a dispute about the finances of the party, Hill raising concerns about AUD 2.4 million in funding which she said was unaccounted for in financial documents. When the Queensland branch of the party defected, forming One Nation Queensland (later renamed to City Country Alliance), Hill joined them, and was sacked by Harris on 13 December 1999. The Alliance was deregistered in 2003.

References

*
*
*