Turnbull turmoil

Citizenship plagues PM

MALCOLM Turnbull must refer Liberal MP John Alexander to the High Court over his dual citizenship, says Labor.

The MP for the Sydney seat of Bennelong is seeking urgent advice on whether he is a UK citizen through his Britishborn father Gilbert Alexander, who was born in England in 1907 and arrived in Australia in 1911.

A search of British records found no trace of Gilbert Alexander, who died in 1987, having formally renounced his UK citizenship before his son was born in 1951.

The Prime Minister said Mr Alexander would only be required to follow the process he announced on Monday, requiring MPs to make a citizenship declaration on the parliamentary register of interests.

But Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said Mr Turnbull needed to refer Mr Alexander to the High Court.

Labor will be seeking to ensure the disclosure process proposed by Mr Turnbull is completed by the end of the parliamentary year on December 7.

Mr Turnbull’s plan involves giving MPs 21 days from the passing of a resolution, which would not be until November 27 at the earliest.

“To try and ensure Australians don’t know the truth about the citizenship of members of parliament or the eligibility of his own MPs until next year, we don’t think that’s good enough,” Senator Wong said.

Mr Alexander says his father became an Australian citizen “as soon as he could”.

“I understand he renounced his British citizenship before I was born, because he was a proud Australian,” he said.

“I was born in 1951 as an Australian citizen.”

But citizenship expert Philip Gamble told Fairfax Media that under UK law Mr Alexander would be a British citizen by descent unless he took formal steps to renounce it.