First court hearing into dual citizenship
PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he is confident the High Court will find dual citizens by descent are eligible for Parliament, as deputy Nationals leader Fiona Nash released documents showing she was no longer part-British.
Sitting in Brisbane today, the High Court will hold the first hearing to determine if five Federal politicians, including Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and Senator Matt Canavan, were eligible to be elected.
Senator Nash – who shocked Parliament last Thursday when she revealed she was British by descent through her estranged father – received documents from the UK Home Office on Tuesday confirming her citizenship had been renounced. It took just days to process after she submitted the forms on Friday.
Meanwhile, Labor’s Longman MP Susan Lamb, whose father was Scottish, has repeatedly refused to release documentation or state when she received renunciation documents from the UK.
She has said she posted the required forms on May 23, 2016, but is understood not to have received confirmation by the time nominations closed on June 9 – the critical date for determining eligibility.
Senator Malcolm Roberts and former Greens Senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam, also subject to the High Court mention today, were all born overseas. Senators Nash and Xenophon are expected to be referred to the High Court at a later date.