Kristina Keneally dares Liberals to run 'dirty' campaign in Bennelong byelection

Labor’s star recruit in Bennelong, Kristina Keneally, has dared the Liberal party to run a “dirty” campaign against her in the looming byelection, declaring taunts about her period in state politics won’t trouble her.

“You know what, I say to Malcolm Turnbull if that’s the best you’ve got mate ... then knock yourself out,” Keneally told her former employer, Sky News, after a succession of government figures, including the prime minister, trained their guns on her period in New South Wales politics after it was confirmed on Tuesday that she would contest the critical seat. “It doesn’t faze me whatsoever.” After the prime minister urged voters in Bennelong to stop Keneally doing in Canberra “what she did to New South Wales”, late on Tuesday, the treasurer Scott Morrison, joined a procession of Liberal figures, declaring the person “Bill Shorten has chosen to represent him in this byelection is the person Eddie Obeid chose to be his premier in NSW, and now, Eddie Obeid is in jail”.

Keneally said Labor had no intention of running a dirty campaign in the seat which the Liberal party currently holds on a margin just under 10%, but if Turnbull and his lieutenants wanted to play political hardball, “that’s his choice”.

John Howard, who held the seat for more than 30 years before being felled by another ALP star recruit in 2007, told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday evening that he believed John Alexander would hold the seat, but with Keneally in the field, the former prime minister predicted a “tough” contest.

The Liberal party is hopeful British authorities will clear Alexander of his citizenship problem within 24

to 48 hours, so he can be preselected and begin the campaign in earnest. The contest is scheduled for 16 December.

The opening skirmishes in what looks set to be a ferocious battle in the Bennelong byelection came as the Tasmanian independent Jaqcui Lambie became the eighth MP to be knocked out by the citizenship fiasco, bowing out on Tuesday with a protracted and emotional farewell to the Senate.

After Lambie finally clarified her position after days of speculation about her eligibility, Labor used Senate question time to pressure the communications minister, Mitch Fifield, about his conversations with Stephen Parry about the dual citizenship that has ended the former Senate president’s political career.

Fifield told the Senate on Tuesday he did not direct Parry to sit on information about his dual citizenship status until after the high court’s so-called citizenship seven ruling, “and I was not aware that Senator Parry was a dual citizen until he advised all colleagues of this by way of a memo”.

But the pressure associated with the debacle looks set to continue. Parliament’s powerful privileges committee has now been asked to investigate whether Fifield breached the ministerial code of conduct in relation to his knowledge of Parry’s dual citizenship after a referral from Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers.

The prime minister is due to fly overnight from the Philippines to be back in Canberra in time for a blockbuster Wednesday, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics due to report the result in the same-sex marriage survey.

The high court is also due to deliberate on the eligibility of the Liberal Hollie Hughes, who was next in line to replace Fiona Nash, the deputy Nationals leader knocked out by the high court because of her dual citizenship.

Hughes faces eligibility questions because she took a taxpayer-funded job after the 2016 election.

With the postal survey result now imminent, the Liberal senator Dean Smith will bring forward his private senators bill legalising same-sex marriage if Australia votes yes, with conservatives positioning on a rival bill.

After a long period of studious diplomacy as the Coalition has indulged bouts of internal warfare on marriage equality, Turnbull abruptly turned the tables, declaring ahead of his departure from Manila that his government “would not countenance” legalising discrimination against same-sex weddings.

The prime minister said a bill giving effect to that behaviour would have “virtually no prospect” of passing parliament.