Via The Australian:
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are preparing for a battle over more than 20 MPs facing questions about possible citizenship rights in foreign countries, in a widening crisis that could tip the balance of power in federal parliament.
The Australian has identified 21 members of the House of Representatives who have spoken of their migrant heritage — many in their maiden speeches — including Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Trade Minister Steven Ciobo, Liberal MP Julia Banks, deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek and Labor MP Steve Georganas.
The vulnerability of MPs who have at least one parent or grandparent born overseas and could be entitled to foreign citizenship by descent has emerged following revelations that Nationals senator Matt Canavan acquired Italian citizenship without being born in, or setting foot in, the country.
And:
Questions of citizenship are now deadly serious for all sides of politics as Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten consider how an accident of birth could shift power in the parliament.
Labor has already challenged the election of one government MP in order to gain an edge in the House of Representatives, where Turnbull governs with just 76 of the 150 members.
Now it has a chance to do more to throw Turnbull off balance, weaken his hold on the parliament and try to force an election.
…This could easily turn into a hostage drama. Any move by Shorten to challenge a Liberal MP will be matched by Turnbull and his allies challenging a Labor MP.
The numbers in parliament make this cold calculation inevitable. Labor could lose an MP with no real damage to its work in parliament but the Coalition would have to fight for every seat, all the way to the High Court.
Richo has it right:
Canavan has issued us a tall order in working out whether he has earned our sympathy. There are two things about his story that many voters will find too difficult to swallow.
First, we have to believe that his mother was able to gain him Italian citizenship when he was 25, and in the next decade never once thought to mention it to him.
Now, I like this bloke but that is a huge stretch.
He is asking us to believe that, over a cup of tea or one of the hundreds of meals he would have had with his mother in those 10 years, the subject of his new citizenship was never, ever mentioned. Good luck convincing the High Court on that one.
This is a leap of faith akin to accepting the Virgin birth and the Holy Trinity.
Plus this bonus:
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts received confirmation that his British citizenship had been revoked in December – a full six months after he nominated as a candidate to the Senate.
After a week of pressure over his citizenship status, Senator Roberts finally unveiled a timeline during an interview on Sky News late on Thursday night.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan has rejected calls to quit after revelations he’s a dual Australian-Italian citizen, vowing to fight for his right to remain in politics.
Senator Roberts said he wrote to the British authorities on May 1 last year to ask them whether he was a British citizen, given he was born to a Welsh father in India.
He says he got no response so he wrote a further email on June 6 – three days before nominations closed – saying that if he was a citizen he fully renounced. He subsequently nominated as a candidate and won a Queensland Senate seat.
It’s a pack of entitled wankers seeking to change the Constitution for their own benefit.
Anyone caught out has to go.
P.S. Two weeks holiday for me as of now. May not be a government when I get back!
