Eighth MP quits as crisis deepens
AUSTRALIA: Crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie has announced she will be resigning from Parliament after confirming she holds British citizenship, becoming the latest casualty in the months-long political crisis.
Lambie, whose father was born in Scotland, has been checking with the British government after concerns were raised about her status and had already warned parliamentary colleagues she would likely be leaving.
She said yesterday it was ‘‘quite clear’’ she held dual citizenship and told a Tasmanian radio station she would officially quit the Senate shortly after midday.
Amid calls to amend the constitution and allow dual citizens to sit in Parliament, Lambie said politicians should just ‘‘suck it up’’, deal with their mistakes and then run for Parliament again.
Lambie, who represents Tasmania as an independent, is the eighth MP to be forced out of Parliament since the citizenship crisis erupted in July.
She said she would ‘‘never’’ ask Devonport mayor Steve Martin, her replacement in a recount, to step aside and allow her return to the Senate.
‘‘That spot is his,’’ she said, adding that she would consider contesting the seat of Braddon if Labor MP Justine Keay is eliminated by her own citizenship concerns.
‘‘I’d certainly have a good look at it ... you can’t keep a bloody Lambie down,’’ she said.
She also suggested she would contest the next election, due in late 2018 or early 2019.
Earlier, she said: ‘‘If I am a dual citizen I will resign, if it is black and white there is no need to take it to the High Court, as simple as that.’’
Lambie entered Parliament with the Palmer United Party at the 2013 election but defected to become an independent after six months.
The government and Labor have agreed on a disclosure measure aimed at resolving the citizenship fiasco.
It will compel all MPs to disclose the details of their birth, heritage of their parents and grandparents, and evidence that any second citizenship was properly renounced.
The deal came after the Nationals’ Barnaby Joyce (the deputy prime minister) and Fiona Nash, the Greens’ Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters, the Liberals’ Stephen Parry and John Alexander and One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts were revealed to have been invalidly elected. –