Labor demands Libs ‘end the circus’
LABOR tried yesterday to send nine federal politicians to the High Court in a bid to end the citizenship circus, as Barnaby Joyce made a triumphant return to Parliament.
The Opposition attempted to refer four of its own MPs – Josh Wilson, Susan Lamb, David Feeney and Justine Keay – to the High Court, along with crossbencher Rebekha Sharkie and Liberal MPs Nola Marino, Julia Banks, Jason Falinski and Alex Hawke.
Coalition MPs voted to block the referral – which was a bid by Labor to force Malcolm Turnbull into exposing more potential dual citizens within his own ranks – as Labor did not have a clear majority of 76 votes even with crossbench support.
Mr Joyce, a victim of the dual citizenship saga, returned to his duties as Deputy Prime Minister at Question Time after his re-election to the seat of New England.
Earlier, he took a swipe at Bill Shorten over the deepening citizenship saga as he was sworn back in.
He said the Labor leader was treating Australians like fools by insisting for months that none of his MPs had any questions to answer.
“A question Mr Shorten: do you honestly believe the Australian people are so stupid that time and time again you could play this ridiculous hypocritical game and get away with it? No, they aren’t, Mr Shorten,” Mr Joyce said.
Earlier in the day, Mr Shorten refused to refer Labor MPs, except Mr Feeney, to the High Court until three Liberal MPs produced further evidence they were not dual citizens.
“We cannot end this circus until Mr Turnbull and his MPs actually submit to full disclosure,” Mr Shorten told reporters.
His comments came after Labor senator Katy Gallagher reluctantly asked to be referred to the High Court, saying she feared the government would continue to use her case to attack Labor.
Mr Feeney will also be referred if unable to find documents proving he renounced British citizenship before the last election.
Labor said there was no need to refer its MPs to test their cases in the High Court because the party had legal advice they would be fine given they took “all reasonable steps” necessary to renounce their citizenship.
Mr Shorten said Labor was up for ending the circus but called for the Liberal MPs to stop hiding behind “half-filled disclosures” and “inadequate explanations”.
“You could drive a Mack truck through some of the inadequate and scant disclosures of the Liberals,” he said.
The release of citizenship details of all federal MPs on Tuesday revealed a further eight politicians could be headed to the High Court – the four Labor MPs, three Liberals and Ms Sharkie.