Eighth Australian MP resigns over dual citizenship
SYDNEY: A constitutional crisis roiling Australian politics claimed a new victim on Tuesday with the resignation of the eighth lawmaker to be felled by a once-obscure rule barring dual citizens from federal ofice.
The departure of Jacqui Lambie, a colourful independent senator from the island state of Tasmania, comes after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s centre-right government lost its grip on parliament as MPS were toppled by the citizenship issue.
Lambie announced her resignation in a tearful speech, telling MPS she had just learned she held British nationality from her Scottish grandfather and father.
“Anyone who knows my father will be shocked to think of him as anyone else than an Aussie,” Lambie told the Senate, adding, “My dad believed he renounced his citizenship years ago.”
But she said that following the resignations of other politicians who held dual citizenship by descent, she made enquiries with British authorities into her situation.
“It is with great regret that I have to inform you that I had been found ineligible by way of dual citizenship,” she said.
The citizenship crisis came to a head on Oct.27 when Australia’s High Court reafirmed a provision in the country’s 1901 constitution that forbids dual citizens from serving in federal parliament.
The ruling has already sparked the resignation of several senators and two members of Turnbull’s coalition in the Lower House of Representatives — deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and former tennis star John Alexander.
The loss of Joyce and Alexander cost the government its majority in the 150-member house, although Turnbull has said he can continue ruling for now with the support of independents.