NATION Pollies’ circus in new tangle

MEMBERS of parliament will need to declare they are not a citizen of another country under a plan Malcolm Turnbull will put to Labor to head off the dual citizenship crisis.

“I want to say that this is not an audit,” Mr Turnbull said in Canberra yesterday.

“The obligation is on each member and each senator to make a full disclosure.”

Within 21 days of the parliament approving the measure, MPs will be required to provide to the registrar of members’ interests a declaration that he or she was not, to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, a citizen of any country other than Australia.

They will also be required to declare the birthplace of their parents. If they had been a dual citizen, MPs would need to provide details and evidence of the time and manner in which their foreign citizenship was renounced or otherwise came to an end.

“Members and senators have been put squarely on notice now,” Mr Turnbull said.

“I think it is important for people to be alert to this and start getting prepared.”

The Prime Minister said the High Court would remain the sole body that determined whether an MP was ineligible to sit in parliament.

Labor leader Bill Shorten said he was prepared to “engage constructively” with the Prime Minister at a meeting tomorrow.

“There can be no arrangement worth striking unless it is fully transparent, unless it’s fair dinkum, unless it satisfies the Australian people that there are no remaining clouds over the eligibility of parliamentarians to sit in parliament,” Mr Shorten said.

However, he said he would not do anything that would stop the High Court from arbitrating on any issues which emerged from the disclosures.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said he would be pressing ahead next week with a proposal for a parliamentary committee to forensically scrutinise all MPs based on advice from citizenship experts.

“This is not the answer. All this does is kick the can down the road,” Senator Di Natale told reporters in Canberra.

The Greens are also concerned the disclosure does not cover an MP’s grandparents, which can in some cases make them dual citizens by descent.

Mr Turnbull said the federal director of the Liberal Party, Andrew Hirst, had told him all sitting party members believed they were in compliance with the constitution.

The High Court will announce on Friday the names of replacements for four dualcitizen senators the High Court booted out of parliament, following a special count by the Australian Electoral Commission yesterday.

It is understood former Democrats senator Andrew Bartlett will replace the Greens’ Larissa Waters and Jordon Steele- John will take the Greens’ Scott Ludlam’s seat.

Ex- One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts will be replaced by business consultant Fraser Anning and former Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash’s NSW seat will go to Liberal Hollie Hughes.