Australian PM cast into crisis as MPS are barred

THE future of Australia’s government was thrown into question yesterday after the country’s High Court ruled the deputy prime minister and four other MPS had been wrongfully elected because they hold dual citizenship.

Barnaby Joyce, who holds New Zealand citizenship, was forced to leave parliament after the ruling was announced in Canberra.

The decision stripped the government of Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister, of its one-seat majority, leaving the viability of his coalition government dependent on a single independent MP.

Speaking in his rural electorate and wearing his trademark wide-brimmed hat, Mr Joyce pointed to the countryside and said: “I was born just there. Just there. I grew up over there.”

He added: “I had no reason to believe I was a citizen of any other country but Australia... It is a tough game, politics.”

Mr Joyce, the leader of the ruralbased National Party, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, will have to recontest his seat at a by-election due to be held on Dec 2.

Admitting that the court’s decision was “disappointing”, a defiant Mr Turnbull insisted that he would continue to govern with the support of independent MPS.

“The decision of the court today is clearly not the outcome we were hoping for but the business of government goes on,” he said.

The court’s decision follows a bizarre saga in Australian politics in which several MPS have been exposed as dual citizens. Australia’s constitution expressly bans MPS from being “a subject or citizen of a foreign power”.

Mr Joyce was born in Australia but inherited New Zealand citizenship from his father.

The court’s unanimous decision said it may appear “harsh” to disqualify politicians who were born in Australia and only ever considered themselves to be Australian.

It said the MPS should have shown “greater diligence” to assess their foreign citizenship status.

“Nomination for election is manifestly an occasion for serious reflection on this question,” the court ruled.

‘I had no reason to believe I was a citizen of any other country but Australia... It is a tough game, politics’

Four MPS in the upper house also lost their seats, including two British citizens, Fiona Nash, a Nationals MP and government minister, and Malcolm Roberts, from One Nation, the far-right party.

Two Greens MPS also lost their seats: Scott Ludlam, a New Zealander, and Larissa Waters, a Canadian. Ms Waters claimed said she had not been back to Canada since leaving as an 11-monthold baby with her Australian parents, who worked briefly in Winnipeg.

The loss of the upper house MPS will not require by-elections. Instead, the parties are expected to replace them with candidates who were next on the party lists at the last election in 2015.