To force a vote of no confidence by suspending standing orders requires 76 votes. It’s a high threshold and the numbers aren’t there now to bring it on: the Coalition has 76 seats and Labor just 69. The reason the high court case is so significant is if Joyce were ruled ineligible, the number of Coalition MPs in the lower house could fall from 76 to 75. If Joyce were ruled ineligible and Labor or a friendly independent won the resulting byelection (the former independent Tony Windsor has not ruled out running) the risk for the government increases. With Joyce ruled ineligible and the Liberal MP Tony Smith sitting in the speaker’s chair Labor could theoretically win a no confidence vote 75 to 74.

Source: The Guardian August 15, 2017 06:56 UTC