to nominate Colston to become Deputy President of the Senate, a position he had previously held from 1990 to 1993. In a bid to win him over, the Howard Coalition government offered to support him. Colston resigned from the Labor Party by fax message at 11:30 a.m., on 20 August, and he took his seat as an independent that afternoon. In the evening, he was elected Deputy President, on the nomination of the Coalition. He opposed the Coalition's industrial relations package, but he voted for the sale of a third of Telstra and some other government initiatives. Colston then sat as a "Queensland First" senator. Travel allowances scandal In 1997, Colston was charged by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions with 28 charges of defrauding the Commonwealth by allegedly misusing his parliamentary travel allowance. He then revealed that he was suffering from cancer. Prosecution was not pursued after medical opinion was provided that Colston was unlikely to live long enough for a trial to be completed. In the event, he survived for a further six years. He retired from the Senate at the end of his term. Death and estate Colston died of colon cancer in 2003. He had appointed his wife, Dawn Colston, as executor and trustee of his will, but she died eleven months later, before she could dispose of her husband's will. She had appointed her brother, Brian McMullen, as executor of her will. The Colstons' son, Douglas Colston, claimed that he was entitled to half the income of his parents' estates, and initiated action against McMullen. The case was ongoing, as of September 2011. As of 2022, the outcome of this case is unknown. Notwithstanding the controversies that he generated after his defection from Labor, Colston requested that no condolence motion be moved in the Senate after his death. References Notes Citations Further reading 1938 births 2003 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia 1975 Australian constitutional crisis Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Australian Senate for Queensland University of Queensland alumni Australian schoolteachers Deaths from cancer in Queensland Deaths from colorectal cancer People educated at Brisbane State High School Independent members of the Parliament of Australia 20th-century Australian politicians