EIGHTH LAWMAKER RESIGNS OVER DUAL CITIZENSHIP

A constitutional crisis roiling Australian politics claimed a new victim with the resignation of the eighth lawmaker to be felled by a once-obscure rule barring dual citizens from federal office. The departure of Jacqui Lambie comes after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s center-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. The citizenship crisis came to a head on October 27 when the High Court reaffirmed a provision in the country’s 1901 constitution that forbids dual citizens from serving in federal parliament.