Pyne threatens vote over Labor MPs
SENIOR Liberal Christopher Pyne is threatening to use the Government numbers in the House of Representatives to refer two Labor members to the High Court over their citizenship status when it sits at the end of November.
There are questions over whether Labor MPs Justine Keay and Susan Lamb, as well as crossbencher Rebekha Sharkie, held dual citizenship at the time of the 2016 election.
Mr Pyne, the Leader of the House, says the Government will put it to the vote if necessary if Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Labor do not take any action.
“There is absolutely no rea- son the parliament should not vote to refer those members to the high court if the Labor Party refuses to do the right thing,” he told Sky News yesterday.
Liberal MP John Alexander on Saturday resigned from parliament after admitting it was “most likely” he holds UK citizenship.
The Bennelong MP said he would stand again for parliament in a by-election in a seat the Liberals hold by more than 9 per cent.
Labor frontbencher Richard Marles said unlike Mr Alexander, Ms Keay and Ms Lamb took steps to renounce their foreign citizenship before nominations.
“Compare that to John Alexander, to Barnaby Joyce, to Stephen Parry, to Fiona Nash, all of them, they didn’t even look at their circumstances until they had been sprung,” Mr Marles told Sky News.
Mr Alexander’s departure leaves the Coalition clinging to 73 seats in the 150 seat House of Representatives, not counting the Speaker, while Labor has 69 seats.
Mr Pyne is confident the Government still has the support of independent MP Cathy McGowan, so the Government will not be brought down.
“Sure it will be a confusing couple of weeks on issues to do with procedure but the Government will not change, we have supply and confidence with support from the crossbench,” Mr Pyne said.
“There is no reason for the parliament not to serve its full term until July 2019.”