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Robert John Day (born 5 July 1952) is an Australian former politician and businessman who was a Senator for South Australia from 1 July 2014 to 1 November 2016. He is a former federal chairman of the Family First Party. Before entering politics, he worked in the housing industry, owning several businesses, and at one stage serving as president of the Housing Industry Association.
Day was the Liberal Party's candidate for the federal seat of Makin at the 2007 election, but resigned from the party after failing to gain preselection for the 2008 Mayo by-election. He subsequently joined the Family First Party and was their candidate for the by-election, later becoming their lead Senate candidate in South Australia at the 2010 election and 2013 election.
On his fourth attempt to enter federal parliament in 2013, Day was elected to the Senate from a 3.8 per cent primary vote for Family First, to a term beginning on 1 July 2014. Family First wins Senate spot in SA – NineMSN. Retrieved 19 May 2014. Despite a decline in the party's vote to 2.9 per cent, he was re-elected at the 2016 double dissolution election. Elected to the 12th and final South Australian Senate spot, Day's term was due to expire on 30 June 2019.
Following the liquidation of Home Australia Group, Day announced his intention to resign from the Senate. However, he stated that a potential new investor had expressed interest in the business, that there was too much important work for the Family First Senate seat to be vacant for even one day and that therefore he would not resign before the year's end. However, Day resigned on 1 November 2016 after stating that the investor had backed out.
On 5 April 2017 the High Court held that Day's re-election to the Senate in July 2016 was invalid, since he'd had an "indirect pecuniary interest" in an agreement with the Commonwealth since at least February 2016. As a result, he had not been eligible to sit as a senator from at least February 2016 onward by reason of section 44(v) of the Constitution.. Re Day No:
He was a founder of Homestead Homes and Home Australia, which now also owns Collier Homes in Western Australia, Newstart Homes in Queensland, Ashford Homes in Victoria and Huxley Homes in New South Wales. These are all major constructors of new houses in their respective states. He is the founder of Oz Homes Foundation, and is managing director of Home Australia. Loyal Lib quits over Mayo: The Australian 28/7/2008 article by Jamie Walker in The Australian 28 July 2008, accessed 17 September 2010 Day's business activities have made him a millionaire. Both Huxley Homes and Day himself have been fined for not complying with rectification orders. Huxley Homes has built many thousands of homes in NSW however twenty-five customers claimed they were in dispute with Huxley Homes and were taking legal action against the company for substandard or unfinished work. Huxley Homes denied the allegations saying they would vigorously defend any legal action. Day is the sole director of Ashford Homes, which is also facing action over unpaid money to creditors. In September 2016, The Australian newspaper raised concerns of how Day contributed $380,000 to Family First in 2012–13 while his businesses appeared to be facing financial difficulties.
He is a past president of the Housing Industry Association, the trade association which represents the residential housing industry in Australia.
Day was the long-time secretary of the New Right-influenced "New Right or Old Wrong? Ideology and Industrial Relations" article by Braham Dabscheck in Journal of Industrial Relations JIR December 1987 Vol. 29 No. 4 425–449, accessed 17 September 2010 H.R. Nicholls Society and a founder of Independent Contractors of Australia (ICA) – a front group campaigning for labour market deregulation in Australia. According to John Stone of the H. R. Nicholls Society, "one of the most active members of that Association (ICA), Mr Bob Day, has been a member of the H.R. Society's Board of Management almost from the outset. I do not think he will contradict me if I say that he has taken the ethos of the Society into the work of the Association." Day was also a former board member of the Centre for Independent Studies – a Libertarianism Australian think tank.
Day was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the House industry and to social welfare, on Australia Day 2003. Day is a board member of the North East Development Agency, having been president for almost a decade, and of North East Vocational College in Adelaide.
In his community service role, Day has planted several thousand trees for farmers and land owners across South Australia. He undertook a roadside planting, irrigation and re-vegetation program along North East Road including a local school.
Day was elected federal chairman of the Family First Party in 2008.
On the day of Senator Cory Bernardi's resignation from the Liberal Party to form a new party, Day confirmed that he was collaborating with Bernardi but would not say whether he would join the new party; Family First stated that Day had resigned from its executive and believed that he had left the party.
Day formally filed bankruptcy papers and was declared bankrupt in April 2017. He was discharged from bankruptcy on 3 July 2020 AFSA.
In October 2020 Day launched the Australian Family Party Media Release: Former Senator launches new political party – Australian Family Party
In the 2009/10 financial year Day made two loans totalling $405,000 to the Family First Party.
Day released a statement on the same day, stating that he had stepped away from the company when elected in 2013, but had returned in 2015 because of what he called "poor management decisions" in his absence. Seeking to sell the business, or find an equity partner to recapitalise, a contract was signed with a Philippines-based capital resource company to purchase a 75 per cent stake in the group, however the money was not transferred and Day claimed the transfer documents were fraudulent. He also announced his intention to resign from the Senate. In an interview with the ABC, Day said that under the circumstances, it would be "untenable to stay in parliament".
However, Day did not immediately resign on the day of the announcement. This gave Family First time to identify a replacement senator, and meant that Day could vote on contentious legislation such as the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill that had been one of the triggers for the double dissolution in 2016. Day later stated that he would not leave the Senate before the end of 2016, as there would not be time to install a replacement senator.
However, on 1 November 2016, Day announced he had tendered his immediate resignation to the President of the Australian Senate. In a statement, Day said "while a number of offers for various parts of the Home Australia business have been received, the major investor who has been examining the group's portfolio of assets over the past fortnight, has decided not to proceed. Accordingly, I have today tendered my resignation to the president of the Senate effective immediately. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve as a senator for South Australia and I am sorry it has ended this way."
The High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, convened a preliminary hearing before Gordon J, whose judgment delivered on 27 January 2017 made numerous findings of fact. Re Day 2017 HCA 2 (Gordon J). The case was heard on 7 February by a full court of the High Court, which delivered its judgment on 5 April.
The Court found that, since at least 26 February 2016–the day that the building's owner first directed that the rental payments go to Day's bank account–Day had had an "indirect pecuniary interest" in an agreement with the Commonwealth, and thus was in violation of section 44(v). At least three judges were prepared to say that the violation dated to 1 December 2015, when the Commonwealth initially entered into a lease agreement with the building's owner. This was despite the fact that Commonwealth public servants advised Finance Minister Mathias Cormann that it was open to him and that it would not be a conflict to make rental payments under the lease from 1 March forward (Hansard 7 November 2016). "The issue", he said, "was not a concern to the department at that point in time”. The High Court, however, found otherwise. It held that Day was ineligible to serve in the Senate as of 26 February 2016, and he was therefore ineligible to nominate for the federal election of 2 July 2016. The Court declared Day's seat vacant and ordered that a special recount of South Australian ballot papers be held in order to determine his replacement. Both Day and the Attorney-General envisaged that Day's replacement would be the other person on the Family First list in that election, Lucy Gichuhi, and the Court agreed. The Australian Labor Party lodged a challenge, claiming that Gichuhi might still be a citizen of Kenya, hence ineligible under Constitution section 44(i) as a citizen of a "foreign power". On 19 April 2017 a full court of the High Court found that the objection had not been made out and declared Gichuhi elected.The court consisted of Justice Gordon, who had been deputed to approve the recount, and Justice Nettle; two Justices are the minimum necessary to constitute a full court of the High Court: Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth) section 19.
In May 2017, Day and the also disqualified Rod Culleton were informed by the Commonwealth Department of Finance and by the Senate that payments received by them and in relation to them when they were sitting although unqualified were a debt to the Commonwealth, which should be repaid. Media estimated Day's debt, for the period between 26 February 2016 and his resignation in November, at nearly $130,000. Special Minister of State Scott Ryan indicated that they could apply for the debts to be waived. Day's application for waiver was accepted.
Day is a supporter of the Monarchy of Australia. He rejects anthropogenic climate change and the scientific consensus on climate change, and he opposes policies to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. Day is a member of the Saltbush Club, a group that promotes climate change denial.
Both Day and Leyonhjelm have long been members of the free market think tank Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).
He has expressed his admiration for Houston's approach to zoning. He says they have none, yet there is a vibrant economy and housing prices are low. He claims the relative cost of housing in Australia compared to Houston is related to urban growth boundaries which limit the amount of land available for building. "Houston We Have a Problem" essay by Bob Day on the website of Family First – South Australia, accessed 17 September 2010
Day takes the position that Australia's stringent urban planning regulations have the effect of driving home prices up artificially and pricing new and low income home buyers out of the market.
As a Liberal, Day had taken a position that WorkChoices, an industrial relations reform enacted in 2005 by the Liberal government of John Howard, did not deregulate the industrial relations system far enough. When he left the party and joined Family First, he supported the party platform which opposed WorkChoices. This position was viewed as a contradiction by Australian political journalist Phillip Coorey, Chief Political Correspondent of The Sydney Morning Herald "Phillip Coorey" website of The Sydney Morning Herald, accessed 14 September 2010 who wrote in 2008:
In 2002, as secretary of H.R. Nicholls, he blamed the award system for high unemployment and the social ills of drugs, crime, violence, poor health, teenage pregnancy and suicide. In a March 2005 financial forum speech, he likened workplace regulations and protections to "Checkpoint Charlie" as he advocated his idea of workplace nirvana, called "Workforce Superhighway". Employment conditions would be determined solely between employers and employees and "no one else". "Hours of work, rates of pay, holidays, sick leave, long-service leave, hiring and firing, will all be agreed between the two parties". There would be no industrial relations commission and workers could settle disputes through either voluntary mediators or magistrates courts. In a January 2005 newspaper column, he urged a return to when apprentices were indentured to tradesmen and paid a modest wage that started at "10 to 15 per cent" of the tradesman's wage. Yet last week The Courier, a local paper in Mayo, featured a small interview piece with Day. "Even on Work Choices – the controversial industrial relations reform that was the biggest single factor in the Coalition's federal election loss – Mr Day said he shared the same views as his new party, which opposed the unpopular policy." Former fellow Liberals were bent double with laughter. "It's true to say his position was to oppose it but only because he thought Work Choices was too bound up with regulation and red tape," said one former colleague. "He was a complete deregulationist."
In May 2017, federal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash referred to the Fair Work Ombudsman allegations that Day had claimed that staff at Homes Australia were independent contractors on commission-only pay when they were in fact employees and therefore had substantial additional legal entitlements. Day has denied that the contractors were employees. "These guys were very sophisticated. They formed proprietary limited companies to take advantage of all the benefits of being incorporated for tax purposes. They can't have it both ways," he told Fairfax Media.
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