Australia to invite court to disqualify opposition lawmakers

The Australian government said on Monday it would invite a court to disqualify at least two opposition lawmakers from Parliament for being dual nationals in a deepening citizenship crisis that threatens the administration’s grip on power. (Photo by Christian Haugen/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian government said on Monday it would invite a court to disqualify at least two opposition lawmakers from Parliament for being dual nationals in a deepening citizenship crisis that threatens the administration’s grip on power.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s conservative coalition faces the threat of losing two seats at byelections after government lawmaker John Alexander on Saturday resigned from Parliament because he had likely inherited British citizenship from his English-born father.

Australia is rare if not unique in the world in banning dual nationals from sitting in Parliament. Pressure is growing to reform the 116-year-old constitution amid the growing uncertainty over how many byelections might result from the current crisis and which party might end up forming government.

Senior government minister Chris Pyne on Monday called on at least two lawmakers from the centre-left opposition Labor Party to follow Alexander’s example by quitting over questions about whether they renounced British citizenship in time to legally run for election last year.

If they refused, Pyne said his coalition would use its dwindling grip on the House of Representatives, where parties need a majority to govern, to refer them to the High Court to rule whether they were eligible to sit in Parliament. The House next sits on Nov. 27.

“The government has a responsibility to ensure that the Parliament is made up of eligible members,” Pyne told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “Where we have clear evidence that a member is ineligible to sit in the Parliament, if their party won’t refer them, then the Parliament will have to do so.”

The minor Greens party had offered to provide the single vote the government would need to get that referral through the House in the face of Labor opposition.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said the Parliament should instead demand all lawmakers provide documented evidence that they are solely Australian citizens by Dec. 1.

The nine lawmakers who have been scrutinized or referred to the court far since July have acknowledged questions about their citizenship needed to be resolved by the court.

Labour has warned that if the government forces two of its lawmakers to go before the court, it would call for another five government lawmakers to join them.

Some in the government say as many as four Labor lawmakers are currently under a cloud and could be referred.

The citizenship crisis has been blamed for Turnbull’s popularity falling in an opinion poll published in The Australian newspaper on Monday.

Respondents who preferred Turnbull as prime minister to Shorten fell 5 percentage points to 36 per cent in two weeks. Shorten’s popularity rating rose a single percentage point to 34 per cent in the same poll. Those uncommitted rose from 26 per cent to 30 per cent.

The Newspoll was based on a weekend survey of 1,625 voters Australia-wide and had a 2.5 percentage point margin of error.

Newspolls are published every two weeks. The latest is the 23rd consecutive Newspoll to show the government trailing Labor.

Turnbull used 30 straight Newspoll losses in 2015 as justification for him replacing then Prime Minister Tony Abbott in an internal government leadership ballot.

The High Court last month disqualified Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce because he had inherited the citizenship of his New Zealand father. He immediately renounced his New Zealand citizenship and will contest his seat at a byelection on Dec. 2.

Alexander also plans to renounce any British citizenship and run for his Sydney-based seat. No date has yet been set for a byelection.

The dual citizenship ban has rarely been an issue before the current Parliament was elected in 2016, although many dual citizens are suspected to have escaped detection. Only two elected lawmakers had previously ever been disqualified over foreign citizenship, in 1996 and 1998.

Investigations by political enemies and journalists resulted in the High Court last month disqualifying five lawmakers, including the deputy prime minister, in a strict interpretation of the ban. The court rejected the government’s argument that ignorance of an inherited nationality should be accepted as an excuse. A sixth senator resigned two weeks ago after revealing he had inherited the citizenship of his British-born father.

Most crucial are the fates of lawmakers in the House of Representatives. Senators are replaced usually from members of the same party without elections.

Many argue that the dual citizen ban is increasingly inappropriate for a migrant nation where half the population is an immigrant or has an immigrant parent.

But changing the constitution requires all registered voters to cast ballots in a referendum, which rarely succeed.