Australian citizenship fracas ensnares Senator Lambie
Turnbull appeals for calm as parliament braces for potential resignation
Senator Jacqui Lambie over dual citizenship concerns.
Turnbull made a public appeal for calm when he faced travelling reporters in the Philippines yesterday, after being asked whether he was concerned this trip could be his last international meeting, and what message he would send to doubters in Coalition ranks.
Back in Canberra, the Senate was awash with speculation after a chaotic opening day yesterday, that Lambie was on the brink of resigning because her father was born in Scotland.
If the Tasmanian senator quits, as many Senate colleagues anticipate, she will join two Greens; the deputy leader of the National party, Fiona Nash; One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts; and the Senate president, the Liberal Stephen Parry, among senators who have fallen foul of the constitutional requirements under section 44.
Pressure on Turnbull has intensified after the latest Newspoll charted a five-point drop in the better prime minister rating, a metric where he normally dominates his opponent, Bill Shorten.
The new poll put the Liberal deputy leader, Julie Bishop, a potential rival in any leadership conflagration, ahead of Turnbull as preferred party leader, 40 per cent to 27 per cent, with Peter Dutton behind both on 11 per cent.
The poor result in the poll published late on Sunday night followed weeks of rolling chaos and contention courtesy of the citizenship imbroglio, culminating in the loss of the government’s lower-house majority at the weekend with the resignation of John Alexander.