Mr Frydenberg, don't take their house! Forgive the debt for the court costs or ask the government to pay them.  The story: please read on for a couple of minutes! Before the 2019 Federal election, a number of Federal Parliamentarians were caught by Section 44 of the Constitution, which among other things bars dual citizens from being MPs. Josh Frydenberg’s name was raised as being entitled to  dual citizenship by descent from his Hungarian mother. On the face of it, there was a case to be made. Frydenberg did not refer himself to the High Court to sort it out, nor did the Parliament. The problem with being a dual citizen and a Minister is that if you are both your decisions are potentially in question. So this matter needed determination. Michael became a petitioner, as is his constitutional right, to bring the case to the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns. As a Kooyong voter, he could do this for a short time after the election. He did so. His motivation was that Frydenberg should be held to account due to his failure to protect our children’s future, with this the only means left available. But this method of going to the High Court made it harder to make the case, because Michael had to prove that, on the balance of probabilities, Frydenberg was a Hungarian citizen by descent. As a result of bringing the action, Michael was attacked under Parliamentary privilege by Morrison, Sukkar, Tim Smith in Victoria and others, falsely called anti-Semitic; pilloried in the Newscorp media, abandoned by some who owed him support including GetUp, and attacked by Morrison outside Parliament. A narrative was established by the allies of Frydenberg that Michael’s action was an abomination because he was using the Holocaust for political purposes. The plain truth is that the allies of Frydenberg were the guilty party in this respect - after all, Frydenberg is either a Hungarian citizen or not, the law is the law, and to bar consideration of the matter being considered because Frydenberg’s mother’s family were leaving Hungary in 1949 following the communist take-over in the wake of the Holocaust and WWII is at best blatantly wrong-headed. In the citizenship case, the Court found against Michael, and ordered that he pay Frydenberg’s costs. These are $410,000. There is no appeal. Michael has raised about $37,000 in total, which has already been spent on the case, and received pro bono support. The court ruled that there was no public interest in bringing the case, and so the Commonwealth would not bear his costs. This defies explanation, and they gave none. Frydenberg’s lawyers Arnold Bloch Leibler, who reportedly made more than $100 million from federal government contracts in the past year, may have acted pro bono for him. This can mean that they would absorb Frydenberg’s costs. However, now that the court has found that Michael must pay Frydenberg’s costs, Frydenberg has served Michael with a notice of bankruptcy in order to recover the $410,000. If this proceeds, Michael’s wife’s house in which they both live will be sold by a bankruptcy trustee. So, financial disaster has been visited upon Michael and his wife Kay as a result of his standing up for the people of Kooyong and Australia. Frydenberg has the power to stop this travesty of fairness. He can forgive the debt. He should do so. As citizens concerned about democracy and climate change we want Frydenberg to stop his punishing bankruptcy proceedings now, forgive the debt, and respond effectively to the climate emergency. For a detailed account of the history and facts of the case, please see the article by senior investigative journalist Sandi Keane here Staindl v Frydenberg: a pyrrhic victory for Josh?