Labor vows to escalate fight over citizenship

MALCOLM Turnbull’s vow to send four Labor MPs to the High Court over their citizenship status has sparked Opposition threats to “go nuclear” in a sign of deepening tensions over the scandal.

The Prime Minister yesterday accused Bill Shorten of “running a protection racket” for Labor MPs under a citizenship cloud after the Government vowed to “definitely” move to send at least four Opposition members to the court.

Labor is refusing to refer its MPs who were British citizens when they nominated — Justine Keay, Josh Wilson, Madeleine King and Susan Lamb

nis? rGinOghOisGteLnE days, what was now former MP John Alexander’s highest singles ranking? — arguing they took “reasonable steps” to renounce and were eligible to stand.

Crossbench MP Rebekha Sharkie could also be forced to face court over the timeline of her British renunciation.

The PM’s threat drew angry response yesterday, with a vow of retaliation from Labor to send more than five Liberal MPs also in question to court should the Government take the drastic step.

Mr Turnbull ramped up pressure on the Opposition to take action, declaring the High Court was the only place to determine if their elections were valid.

“Is he really going to say that it’s the Labor Party that decides who sits in the parliament and not the High Court?” he said from Hong Kong.

“There is no question that Labor has a number of members who not only were, but knew they were, they knew Get a Google Home when you subscribe they were foreign citizens at the time they nominated. That makes them ineligible.”

Relations between the leaders have hit rock bottom as the crisis continued to engulf Canberra after NSW MP John Alexander resigned on Saturday, further damaging the Government’s grip on power.

“If Turnbull wants to fire this missile, we’ve got the ammo to go nuclear,” a senior Labor source said. “If I were Julia Banks, Nola Marino or Alex Hawke, I’d be sweating bullets whenever he talks about referring Labor MPs. We’ve been doing our work — the case against these MPs is compelling.”

Under section 44, a person who is “a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power” is incapable of nominating for parliament.

Manager of Opposition business Tony Burke said there was a difference between Labor and Government members under a spotlight.

“The difference is this: those who are in the spotlight for the Labor Party took reasonable steps before the nomination date. Those who are in the focus from the Liberal Party took no steps before the nomination date,” Mr Burke said.

Leader of the House Christopher Pyne called on Mr Shorten to force his members in doubt to resign so there could be several by-elections before Christmas.