Barnaby Joyce embroiled in dual citizenship saga and has referred himself to the High Court
Claire Bickers, News Corp Australia Network
40 minutes ago
MALCOLM Turnbull’s majority government is under threat after the shocking revelation that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce may be a dual citizen of New Zealand.
The Nationals leader made the announcement in Parliament this morning that he will refer his own eligibility to sit to the High Court.
Mr Joyce told the lower house he would remain in his position until the matter was resolved.
He said he was shocked to learn last week that he could be a citizen of New Zealand by descent via his father.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has referred himself to the High Court.
“Last Thursday afternoon the New Zealand High Commission contacted me to advise that on the basis of preliminary advice from their department of internal affairs, which had received inquiries from the New Zealand Labor Party, they considered that I may be a citizen by descent of New Zealand,” Mr Joyce told Parliament.
“Needless to say, I was shocked to receive this information. I have always been an Australian citizen, born in Tamworth, just as my mother and my great-grandmother (were) born there 100 years earlier.
“Neither I, nor my parents, have ever had any reason to believe that I may be a citizen of any other country.”
RELATED: Greens senator Larissa Waters resigns
Barnaby Joyce was shocked to be contacted by the New Zealand High Commission letting him know he may be a citizen by descent via his father. Picture: AAP
The Government holds a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives and if Mr Joyce were disqualified from being able to sit in Parliament, the government would lose its majority.
Mr Joyce, who was born in Australia in 1967, said he considered himself a fifth generation Australian.
His father was born in New Zealand and came to Australia in 1947 as a British subject, as New Zealand and Australian citizenship was not officially created until 1948.
But under New Zealand law, however, Mr Joyce is considered to have automatically been a New Zealand
citizen from birth.
“If you were born overseas and at least one of your parents is a New Zealand citizen by birth or grant, you are an NZ citizen by descent,” the New Zealand Government website on citizenship and passports states.
Mr Joyce disputed this in Parliament, saying the New Zealand Government had no register legally recognising him as a citizen.
Barnaby Joyce said the New Zealand Government had no register legally recognising him as a citizen. Pic: Christopher Chan
The Government will refer the matter of Mr Joyce’s citizenship to the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, under section 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.
“Given the strength of the legal advice the government has received the Prime Minister has asked that I remain Deputy Prime Minister and continue my ministerial duties,” Mr Joyce told Parliament.
There are also fresh questions over the citizenship status of Labor MPs, including deputy leader Tanya Plibersek and Anthony Albanese.
At a press conference in Canberra this morning, Mr Albanese denied there were any question marks over his status.
“The circumstances of my birth is that I had a single parent, there is a single parent legally on my birth certificate, that was my mother who was born ... in the same hospital in which I was born in Darlinghurst (in Sydney),” he said.
“Her parents were both born here. Their parents were all born here as well.”
The latest saga comes after two Greens MPs resigned over holding dual citizenship, and Nationals MP and Cabinet Minister Matt Canavan and One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts were referred to the High Court.
The Prime Minister has written to the Opposition Leader over Section 44.
The Prime Minister has written to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten today to invite him to “nominate any Labor members of senators whose circumstances may raise questions”.
More to come ...