Parties duel over dual citizens

THE nation’s most senior court is at risk of being clogged by a succession of dual citizenship cases as the battle between Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten intensifies.

Already disrupting the operation of Parliament, the debacle could continue into the new year with a run of by-elections from March.

Yesterday, Labor accused Prime Minister Turnbull of acting like a “tin-pot dictator” as he and senior colleagues repeated threats to have the eligibility of Opposition MPs to sit in Parliament tested by referral to the High Court – with or without Labor support.

The government replied Opposition Leader Shorten was trying to “blow up the Parliament”.

The number of MPs and senators suspected of failing to obey the Constitution’s requirements on dual citizenship has reached 28 to 30 by some counts, and only the High Court can rule on their status.

In Vietnam, Mr Turnbull rejected a request from Mr Shorten to not unilaterally refer any Opposition MPs to the High Court.

“We will vote to refer to the High Court anybody, whether they are on the government side, the Labor side or on the crossbenches, if there are substantial grounds to believe they are not in compliance with the Constitution,” the PM said.

“To ask me to do anything else is quite unworthy. And I’m disappointed that he made that request and that he even thought that was a proper thing to do.

“The principle that we have to uphold is compliance with the Constitution.”

Labor Senate leader Penny Wong accused Mr Turnbull of being a “tin-pot dictator”, telling Adelaide radio any partisan referrals to the High Court would be a sign of desperation.

“This is really a very desperate and diminished Prime Minister we’ve seen. I think Australians, who are rightly sick of this, want it resolved,” Ms Wong said.

However, Defence Industries Minister Christopher Pyne argued that if the Liberals and Nationals were referring their own members to the court, Labor MPs could also expect to be put on the list.

“I don’t care if Labor wants to co-operate or not,” Mr Pyne told Channel 9.

“Bill Shorten is trying to blow up the Parliament – we’re trying to resolve the issue that the High Court has created for us.

“If Bill Shorten thinks he can carve out Labor MPs from the same rules that apply to everybody else in the Parliament, he has another thing coming.”

The unilateral, or partisan, referrals of MPs to the High Court are expected to follow the joint referrals that have led to the disqualification of three senators and one MP from Parliament. A fifth senator has resigned on similar citizenship grounds.