Citizenship drama flares again, with four MPs and one senator on the way out after High Court ruling

Updated

There will be five by-elections in four states following a string of resignations from Federal Parliament on Wednesday.

Key points: High Court ruled Labor senator Katy Gallagher ineligible because of British citizenship

Four MPs resigned in wake of the court's decision, all from non-Government parties

The fifth by-election is for resignation of Perth MP Tim Hammond last week for family reasons

Four federal MPs have announced their resignation from Parliament after the High Court ruled Labor senator Katy Gallagher ineligible because she did not renounce her British citizenship in time.

Rebekha Sharkie, Josh Wilson, Susan Lamb and Justine Keay announced they were quitting Parliament in the wake of the Gallagher ruling.

There will be a fifth by-election because Labor's Tim Hammond is also resigning, for family reasons.

It is not clear yet when the elections will be held, but there is an expectation of a "Super Saturday" of polls all on the one day — potentially in late June.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie resigns from Parliament over citizenship (ABC News)

All of the five MPs to quit are from non-Government parties, so unlike previous by-elections in Bennelong and New England late last year, the Government could not lose its one-seat majority.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has repeatedly said that Labor's candidates had been through a thorough vetting process to ensure their eligibility.

After his MPs quit in the wake of the High Court ruling, he defended his previous statements, arguing Labor had acted in good faith.

No Coalition MPs have been caught by this High Court ruling, but the Opposition insists that questions remain about the eligibility of some Government MPs, in particular the member for Mackellar, Jason Falinski.

"We are not saying he should leave the Parliament tomorrow, but that one should be referred to the High Court," Labor frontbencher Tony Burke argued.

Mr Falinski has recently received advice from the Polish Ambassador to Australia, Michal Kolodziejski, following questions about his Polish ancestry.

In a letter dated April 27, 2018, the ambassador sets out three ways in which Polish citizenship can be established: with a passport, an identity card or on confirmation by Polish authorities.

"I can confirm that according to our records you have never had a Polish passport, a Polish identity card, and you have never applied through our embassy to relevant Polish authorities to confirm the possession of Polish citizenship or to be bestowed Polish citizenship," the letter reads.

"Unless you submit at least one of the above mentioned documents you are not entitled to the rights or privileges of Polish citizenship, including a Polish passport."

The most marginal seat among the pending by-elections is Longman, held by Labor's Susan Lamb.

Ms Lamb won the seat on Queensland's Sunshine Coast by a margin of less than 1 per cent.

She insisted in Parliament she would stand again.

The ABC understands the Labor party has submitted an application for Ms Lamb to renounce her citizenship.

She had said she could not renounce her citizenship because she did not have a copy of her parents' marriage certificate as she is estranged from her mother.

But the British Home Office has agreed to process the renunciation without it.

The LNP has not yet pre-selected a candidate for Longman, but said it hoped to have pre-selection organised by the end of next week. Former member Wyatt Roy has confirmed he will not be a candidate.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has confirmed her party will run a candidate for the seat.

Voters will also be sent back to the polls in Braddon in north-western Tasmania, which Labor's Justine Keay won from Liberal Brett Whiteley in 2016.

Ms Keay had argued she took all the steps she could to renounce her British citizenship, but she has now accepted the High Court decision.

Ms Sharkie, from the Centre Alliance Party — formerly the Nick Xenophon Team — won the seat of Mayo from Liberal Jamie Briggs in 2016.

Her victory in the previously safe Liberal seat was the only Lower House win for the Xenophon Team at the last election.

There will be two by-elections in Western Australia.

Josh Wilson, who won the safe Labor seat of Fremantle in 2016, has also resigned because of the High Court's Gallagher decision.

He was chosen by Labor after it dumped its previous candidate during the last election campaign, which is when he took action to renounce his British citizenship.

The fifth by-election is for the seat of Perth, where Labor's Tim Hammond announced last week he would resign for family reasons.

Topics: government-and-politics, alp, federal-parliament, courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, constitution, australia, vic, sa, qld, wa

First posted</s>All those MPs were dual British citizens at the cut-off date, but have relied on the same defence as Ms Gallagher - that they took reasonable steps to renounce before the deadline. Attorney-General Christian Porter called on the four MPs to resign "by the close of business today". Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The High Court judgment affirmed its decision from the Matt Canavan case which ruled an MP is eligible if they took reasonable steps to renounce their citizenship but the foreign country's law posed an "irremediable impediment" to accomplishing the renunciation. That did not apply in Ms Gallagher's case because British law did not make it "impossible or not reasonably impossible to renounce British citienship", the court found on Wednesday. Attorney-General Christian Porter immediately called on the four Labor MPs and Ms Sharkie to resign by the close of business on Wednesday. He said the MPs should not take their seats in the Parliament for Question Time at 2pm, and did not rule out fining the MPs or forcing them to pay back their salaries for sitting in Parliament unlawfully.

"The decision is clear and doesn't change the law," Mr Porter said. "It confirms the law as we have known it to be since October, and all four members must resign today." Leader of the House Christopher Pyne said the ruling posed a test of character for Labor leader Bill Shorten, and the idea the three Labor MPs could be allowed to remain in the Parliament was "laughable". In a statement, Mr Shorten said he was "deeply disappointed for Katy Gallagher". He argued the court had set a new precedent in its ruling and he would "now consider what further implications today's decision by the High Court may have". The leader of the opposition in the Senate, Penny Wong, said Labor would "respect the totality" of the High Court decision. Manager of opposition business Tony Burke said on Tuesday that if the High Court found Ms Gallagher had not taken reasonable steps, Labor would "obviously have to deal with that across the board". Sky News reported on Tuesday the three Labor MPs would resign if Ms Gallagher were ruled ineligible. That would set up byelections in the Queensland seat of Longman, the Western Australian seat of Fremantle and the Tasmanian seat of Braddon.

The Coalition would be hopeful of gaining the seat of Longman, which Ms Lamb won on a margin of just 0.8 per cent. The seat was previously held by Liberal frontbencher Wyatt Roy. Ms Sharkie said she was urgently seeking legal advice following Wednesday's decision and she believed her circumstances were “materially different” to Ms Gallagher’s, an indication she may refer her case to the High Court. Mr Porter, the country's chief law officer, said that was incorrect. "Her case is indistinguishable," he said. "The four cases are legally and in-principle indistinguishable from each other and from the case of Senator Gallagher." Ms Gallagher said the outcome was "deeply disappointing" and apologised to ACT voters. She indicated she wanted to remain in public in another Labor role - potentially back in the Senate. The Senate vacancy will be filled by a special count of the ballot papers and is likely to go to David Smith, director of the Professional Australia union.

Wednesday's decision has also reignited debate about a referendum to change section 44 of the Constitution, which declares aspiring MPs must be citizens of Australia only. Crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm, who sits on the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, said he reluctantly supported a referendum and believed there was no choice after the High Court decision. “There are no solutions other than a referendum,” he said. “If we don’t change the constitution half the country will be ineligible to be in federal Parliament, and eligibility could be determined by the laws of other countries as well.” There will also be an unrelated byelection in the WA seat of Perth because Labor's Tim Hammond last week announced his intention to resign. Ms Gallagher is the 11th politician to quit or be booted from Parliament in the citizenship crisis, though two - Coalition MPs Barnaby Joyce and John Alexander - were returned at byelections.

Ex-senators Scott Ludlam, Larissa Waters, Stephen Parry, Fiona Nash, Malcolm Roberts, Jacqui Lambie and Skye Kakoschke-Moore also fell on the section 44 sword, as well as former Labor MP David Feeney, who did not recontest his seat. Senator Canavan referred his case to the High Court but was ruled eligible, essentially due to the unreasonable complexity of Italy's citizenship regime. with David Crowe</s>CANBERRA: Five Australian parliamentarians were ousted on Wednesday for holding dual citizenship when they were elected. It comes as fresh blow to Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull's majority in the House.

In what was widely viewed as a fresh test case, a high court ruled Senator Katy Gallagher ineligible, the BBC reported.

Four other politicians, who were also under scrutiny resigned after the verdict.

Gallagher and lower house MPs Justine Keay, Josh Wilson and Susan Lamb are members of the opposition Labor party. The fifth MP, Rebekha Sharkie, is part of minor party Centre Alliance.

In 2017, 10 MPs and senators were removed from office for violating a constitutional rule that prohibits federal political candidates from being dual nationals, the BBC report said.

The dual citizenship saga has destabilised Australian politics since July 2017, at times threatening Turnbull's majority in the House of Representatives.

Turnbull could increase his majority if he wins any of the vacant lower house seats, the BBC reported.

Gallagher was aware of her British passport as her father was born in England, so the court ruled that she did not take "all reasonable steps" to relinquish her British links, Xinhua news agency reported.

The High Court of Australia ruled that Gallagher's seat would be filled by counting back votes from the 2016 federal election.

The other politicians are expected be replaced in the same way, or through a by-election.

Gallagher had referred herself to the court in 2017 after questions emerged over whether she had renounced her British citizenship in time to run for office.

"To the people of the (Australian Capital Territory), I'm very sorry that this disruption has occurred to one of your federal representatives," she said on Wednesday.

Labor leader Bill Shorten said three of the ousted MPs would seek re-election.

Shorten said his party had relied on an older interpretation of Section 44(a), a much-debated rule in the constitution, that says members of parliament cannot continue to have citizenship in another country, and must prove they took "all reasonable steps" to renounce the other citizenship before being elected.</s>SYDNEY
• Australia faces a series of by-elections after the High Court ruled yesterday that an 11th lawmaker must leave Parliament, in a test-case decision that prompted four more lawmakers to quit amid a widening citizenship crisis.

The court found unanimously that opposition Labor Party Senator Katy Gallagher also held British citizenship at the time of her election, despite her attempts to renounce it, and so was ineligible to be elected to the federal parliament.

Dual citizens are blocked from national elected office under Australia's 117-year-old constitution. The decision prompted four other lawmakers in similar predicaments to resign, triggering by-elections for their lower-house seats.

Ms Gallagher and the other four are not members of Australia's ruling centre-right coalition, keeping its slender majority safe, but the resulting polls will be a litmus test of the public mood and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's popularity ahead of a general election due next year.

"By-elections are notoriously difficult things," Dr Nick Economou, a political scientist at Monash University in Melbourne, said.

He said the Queensland state seat of Longman, held by Labor's Susan Lamb on a knife-edge margin until her resignation yesterday, was a bellwether contest.

"If Labor was to lose that, it'd be a huge fillip for Turnbull," Dr Economou said.

"On the other hand, if Labor was to win with an increased majority, that would be a sign that there's a problem for the government," he said.

Ms Lamb said she intended to recontest her seat.

Labor MPs Josh Wilson and Justine Keay, and independent member Rebekha Sharkie, who also resigned yesterday, said they would do likewise in their separate electorates.

Dates for the by-elections have not been set officially but could be as early as mid-June.

Ms Gallagher, who said she was disappointed but accepted the court ruling, will be replaced by another Labor politician in the Senate.

"The High Court has adopted the strictest possible reading," said Dr George Williams, professor and Dean of Law at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

"I'm surprised by the result. I think it delivers a proposition that is unworkable... because of how hard it will be to comply with these requirements now," he said.

In a nation in which half the population were either born overseas or have parents who were, the dual citizenship rule has cut a swathe through the national parliament.

It has prompted the departure of 15 lawmakers in total, and last year briefly left Mr Turnbull's Liberal-National coalition clinging to a minority government.

Ms Gallagher, who was born in Ecuador to British parents and was conferred British citizenship, filed paperwork and paid processing fees to renounce it more than two months before being elected in July 2016.

However, she did not get confirmation from the British Home Office that her renunciation had been processed until after she was elected, according to documents she disclosed to Parliament last year.</s>Five new Australian parliamentarians have been ousted for holding dual citizenship when they were elected.

Last year, 10 MPs and senators were removed from office for violating a constitutional rule that prohibits federal political candidates from being dual nationals.

On Wednesday, Senator Katy Gallagher was ruled ineligible by a court in what was widely viewed as a fresh test case.

Four other politicians who were under scrutiny resigned after the verdict.

Ms Gallagher and lower house MPs Justine Keay, Josh Wilson and Susan Lamb are members of the opposition Labor party. The fifth MP, Rebekha Sharkie, is part of minor party Centre Alliance.

The dual citizenship saga has destabilised Australian politics since last July, at times threatening Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's majority in the House of Representatives.

Mr Turnbull could increase his majority if he wins any of the vacant lower house seats.

The High Court of Australia ruled that Ms Gallagher's seat would be filled by counting back votes from the 2016 federal election.

The other politicians are expected be replaced in the same way, or through a by-election.

Ms Gallagher had referred herself to the court last year after questions emerged over whether she had renounced her British citizenship in time to run for office.

"To the people of the [Australian Capital Territory], I'm very sorry that this disruption has occurred to one of your federal representatives," she said on Wednesday.

Labor leader Bill Shorten said three of the ousted MPs would seek re-election.

Mr Shorten said his party had relied on an older interpretation of Section 44(a), a much-debated rule in the constitution.

"The High Court has made the decision - these are the facts we've got to deal with," he said.</s>Another politician has fallen into the dual citizenship trap. Labor Senator Katy Gallagher was ruled ineligible for her position by the High Court on Wednesday.

Gallagher holds dual citizenship of Australian and British. According to court, she is ineligible to sit in Parliament because she failed to renounce her British citizenship before the 2016 election. She is a British citizen by descent through her father.

The senator previously maintained that she should not be disqualified under section 44 of the Australian Constitution, which disqualifies dual citizens from Parliament, because she took all reasonable steps to renounce her UK citizenship before the closure of nominations for the 2016 poll. UK Home Office, however, asked for further documents and did not register her renunciation until a month after the election.

The High Court disagreed. The issue was whether someone who has begun their renunciation process would be eligible for Parliament position even if the process hasn’t completed at the time of their nomination.

Gallagher said she took “all steps reasonably required,” but the High Court determined that that was only a defence if foreign law “irremediably prevents” the person from renouncing their citizenship. The five justices all concurred that there was no such irremediable impediment for Gallagher.

“I have spent the last 17 years of my life representing the people of the Australian Capital Territory, firstly in the ACT Legislative Assembly and more recently in the Senate,” Gallagher said in a statement. “It has been an absolute honour to hold elected offices.”

Her position would most likely be filled by David Smith, Labor’s ACT Senate ticket in 2016. She continued, “To the people of the ACT, I’m very sorry that this disruption has occurred to one of your federal representatives. To have my place in the Senate end like this today is very deeply disappointing, but I believe that I have more to contribute to public life and I will take the time to talk with Labor Party members on how I can do this over the months ahead.”

Her disqualification opens the possibility of the same outcome for three Labor MPs and Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie. The Labor MPs — Josh Wilson (Fremantle, WA), Justine Keay (Braddon, TAS) and Susan Lamb (Longman, QLD) — and Sharkie all have relied on the same defence.

Save for Lamb, who remains a dual citizen because the UK home office wouldn’t process her application without her parents’ birth certificate, all have successfully defended their Parliament position. But now that Gallagher has been decided a dual citizen, it could lead to their status being questioned once more as well.</s>Labor senator Katy Gallagher has lost her seat in parliament after the High Court ruled she was ineligible to stand for the 2016 election because of her dual citizenship status.

Senator Gallagher had claimed she took all reasonable steps to renounce her British citizenship before the election, but was still a British citizen when the writs were issued.

The 48-year-old former Australian Capital Territory chief minister, who became the ACT's lone Labor senator in 2015, was born in Canberra in 1970 but her mother was born in Ecuador, which was a British colony at the time of her birth.

The High Court's decision puts a cloud over a number of other MPs, including first-term Labor members Susan Lamb and Justine Keay, who both hold marginal seats in outer Brisbane and western Tasmania and are possible dual British citizens.

The Turnbull Government was returned to power with a bare one-seat majority in July 2016 so a by-election in either of those two seats could help the Coalition boost its numbers in the House of Representatives.

The High Court ruling could also spark a by-election in the Adelaide Hills seat of Mayo, where the Nick Xenophon Team candidate Rebekha Sharkie defeated former Liberal minister Jamie Briggs.

Ms Sharkie, who is now with the Central Alliance, faces a strong challenge from the Liberal Party should her possible dual citizenship spark a by-election in the previous safe Liberal electorate once held by former foreign minister Alexander Downer.

In Fremantle, south of Perth, first-term Labor MP Josh Wilson is also a potential dual Brit, however this seat would be unlikely to be picked up by the Liberals if there were a by-election.

Since July last year, section 44 of the constitution, which bans dual citizens from being federal members of parliament, has ended the political careers of former Greens senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam.

The citizenship fiasco has also seen crossbench firebrand Jacqui Lambie kicked out of the Senate along with former deputy Nationals leader Fiona Nash, for being dual citizens of the United Kingdom by descent.

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and Liberal MP John Alexander, a former tennis champion, resigned from the House of Representatives last year but were returned in December by-elections, after they discovered they had ties to New Zealand and Britain through their fathers.</s>Following Labor Senator Katy Gallagher’s disqualification from Parliament, four MPs with the same predicament have resigned. Labor MPs Justine Keay, Josh Wilson and Susan Lamb, and Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie all resigned at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Sharkie resigned following the High Court’s decision to render Gallagher ineligible to hold office on Wednesday. Moments later, the three Labor members also announced their resignation. The government said that anyone who had questions over their dual citizenship should resign by the day’s end.

All four had the same defence as Gallagher in their dual citizenship case. Earlier in the day, the High Court determined that the Labor senator was ineligible for Parliament because the defence of taking “all steps reasonably required” did not apply to her. It would only apply if the country that the person is renouncing their citizenship from has a law that “irremediably prevents” the person from doing so. Gallagher, being a dual British citizen, did not have the same irremediable impediment.

The decision is expected to be the new precedent for dual citizenship cases as stated in section 44 of the Australian Constitution.

With Gallagher disqualified and now four more quitting their positions, there will be a total of five by-elections coming up. The fifth one is for Labor’s Tim Hammond, who is resigning for family reasons.</s>SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia’s High Court has ruled an 11th lawmaker must leave parliament after discovering she was a dual national, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported on Wednesday, the latest casualty in a widening citizenship crisis.

The court found that opposition Senator Katy Gallagher was a British citizen at the time of her election, despite her attempts to renounce it, and ineligible for office, the ABC said.

Dual citizens are ineligible for elected office under Australia’s 117-year-old constitution and the decision is likely to render three other lawmakers in similar predicaments ineligible as well.

The three are not members of Australia’s ruling centre-right coalition, keeping its slender majority safe, but the resulting by-elections would be a litmus test of the public’s mood and the government’s popularity ahead of an election due next year.

Adherence to the dual-citizenship rule, in a country where more than half the population of 24 million were either themselves, or have a parent, born overseas, came under the spotlight last year, with the High Court adopting a strict interpretation of the law.</s>Australian taxpayers will soon for footing a $7.6 million bill for four by-elections sparked by four MPs failing to understand how being dual British citizens made them ineligible to sit in federal parliament.

Labor MPs Susan Lamb, Justine Keay and Josh Wilson all dramatically resigned from the House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon.

Minor party MP Rebekha Sharkie, who was elected in 2016, also quit after the High Court found Labor senator Katy Gallagher was ineligible to sit in federal parliament because she is a dual Briton.

The resignation of those four MPs will cost taxpayers $7.6 million for by-elections that could have easily paid for 101 registered nurses or 115 teachers, even though a general election is likely to be held by May next year.

The four first-term MPs, who failed to realise being dual British citizenship disqualified them from sitting in parliament, had base salaries of $203,000.

A fifth by-election is also set to be held in coming months, after first-term Labor MP and Opposition frontbencher Tim Hammond resigned so he could spend more time with his young children.

His resignation from parliament, less than two years after being elected, means Australian taxpayers will be spending $9.4 million on half a dozen by-elections, which could pay for 127 registered nurses or 144 teachers.

By-elections in Australia are typically expensive, costing an average of $1.9 million, figures from the Australian Electoral Commission show.

In another insult to voters, the federal MPs who signalled they would quit over their dual citizenship will be able to use their taxpayer entitlements until they formally resigned in writing.

Leader of the House Christopher Pyne asked Speaker Tony Smith on Wednesday to ensure the four MPs who declared they were resigning did not use their travel and other entitlements any longer.

Mr Pyne said the MPs had publicly indicated they were not eligible to be in parliament and 'as a consequence they should not be able to use their entitlements'.

However, Tony Smith said they would continue to be MPs, and allowed to use their entitlements, until they wrote to him with their resignations, which was expected on Friday.

Mr Smith said the Special Minister of State was responsible for entitlements.

'I don't have the power to dismiss members from the House and I don't think the House would like me to have that power,' the Speaker said.

A half-Senate election has to be held by May next year, and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday hinted that was his plan.

'The next election will be in the first half of next year,' he said.

A series of by-elections would see voters in Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia heading to the polls twice in less than a year.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott's former chief-of-staff Peta Credlin hinted a general election could even by held the end of this year.

'Believe or not, now see why a poll this year is looking more and more likely?’,' she said in The Australian.

That sentiment was echoed by former Labor senator Sam Dastyari, who said Treasurer Scott Morrison had handed down an 'election year budget'.

'This is all makeup. It won’t stay on for too long before the mascara smudges,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.

Senator Gallagher, who was disqualified by the High Court, had claimed she took all reasonable steps to renounce her British citizenship before the election, but was still a British citizen when the writs were issued.

The 48-year-old former Australian Capital Territory chief minister, who became the ACT's lone Labor senator in 2015, was born in Canberra in 1970 but her mother was born in Ecuador, which was a British colony at the time of her birth.

Like her, the lower house Labor MPs who resigned from parliament are also dual Britons although their cases hadn't been tested in the High Court in Canberra.

First-term Labor MP Susan Lamb won the outer northern Brisbane seat of Longman by a 0.8 per cent margin, or just 1,390 votes, at the 2016 election by defeating junior minister Wyatt Roy.

She faces a tough challenge to keep her seat although she indicated she would renounce her British citizenship and contest the upcoming by-election.

'I am not done yet. I intend to be back,' Ms Lamb told parliament on Wednesday.

In February, Ms Lamb's stepmother Maureen Cant questioned the MP's tearful claim in parliament she could not renounce her British citizenship because her mother abandoned her at the school gates when she was six, and was 'not around' to provide her marriage certificate to her biological father, who was British.

Fellow first-term Labor MP Justine Keay, who won Braddon in Tasmania's north-west, by a narrow 2.2 per cent margin, has also indicated she will run at the upcoming by-election.

'I want to make it very clear to every member of my community and every member of this house that I am not done working and fighting on behalf of those who sent me here,' she told parliament on Wednesday.

Rebekha Sharkie, who won the Adelaide Hills-based electorate of Mayo off the Liberal Party at the last election, also quit parliament over concern she was a dual Briton.

This will spark a by-election in the Adelaide Hills seat of Mayo, where the Nick Xenophon Team candidate defeated former Liberal minister Jamie Briggs with a massive 17.5 per cent swing.

Ms Sharkie, who is now with the Central Alliance, faces a strong challenge from the Turnbull Government in the previously safe Liberal electorate once held by former foreign minister Alexander Downer.

Her resignation came just six months after her NXT colleague Skye Kakoschke-Moore resigned from the Senate after the High Court found she was a dual British citizen.

In Fremantle, south of Perth, first-term Labor MP Josh Wilson is also a dual Brit, however this seat would be unlikely to be picked up by the Liberals in an upcoming by-election despite the 7.5 per cent margin.

'Until today's decision the reasonable steps test had been accepted for more than 25 years in this country,' Mr Wilson told the House of Representatives.

Senator Gallagher's replacement in the upper house will come from Labor under a 1977 constitutional change, which means her disqualification won't spark a by-election.

The Turnbull Government was returned to power with a bare one-seat majority in July 2016 so a by-election in either in Longman or Braddon could help the Coalition boost its numbers in the House of Representatives.

Since July last year, section 44 of the constitution, which bans dual citizens from being federal members of parliament, has ended the political careers of former Greens senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam.

The citizenship fiasco has also seen crossbench firebrand Jacqui Lambie kicked out of the Senate along with former deputy Nationals leader Fiona Nash and former Liberal Senate president Stephen Parry, for being dual citizens of the United Kingdom by descent.

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and Liberal MP John Alexander, a former tennis champion, resigned from the House of Representatives last year but were returned in December by-elections, after they discovered they had ties to New Zealand and Britain through their fathers.
The High Court of Australia disqualifies Senator Katy Gallagher because she held dual citizenship with the United Kingdom when elected, not renouncing it in time. Four MPs in similar situations have also resigned, setting up four by-elections.