Citizenship: Labor MPs face ‘hostile’ referrals as parliament returns for 2018

A SENIOR government minister has confirmed it will refer Labor MPs to the High Court over dual citizenship questions if Bill Shorten refuses to do it himself.

A STANDOFF over the citizenship saga will dominate federal politics this week with a senior government minister confirming it will refer Labor MPs to the High Court if Bill Shorten “refuses to do the right thing”.

The government is hesitating to use its numbers to make so-called ‘hostile referrals’ of Labor MPs whose citizenship status is under a cloud as it would set a precedent.

Instead, Coalition MPs will continue to pressure Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to refer MPs with questions over their status to the High Court as Parliament resumes for its first sitting week of 2018 today.

But Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne confirmed the government would be forced to take action if Labor did not.

“We will refer if necessary if Labor refuses to do the right thing,” Mr Pyne told ABC radio today.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten shakes hands with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as they attend an ecumenical service for the commencement of the 2018 Parliamentary Year. Picture: AAP

“We would like Bill Shorten and Susan Lamb to step up and do the right thing as John Alexander did,” he said.

“We’d rather not refer people unilaterally.”

Mr Pyne said the cases of other Labor MPs including Justine Keay, Josh Wilson and Emma Husar should be considered by the High Court but the government considered the case of Susan Lamb “as open and shut”.

He did not confirm when the government would refer the MPs but said it would decide what action to take “at the appropriate time”.

Susan Lamb in Question Time. Picture: Kym Smith

Mr Shorten told reporters in Canberra the public would mark all sides of parliament down if they repeated the squabbling of 2017 in 2018.

He indicated Labor was willing to compromise on referring MPs to the High Court but not without referring Liberal MPs as well.

“As I said to Mr Turnbull, it takes two to tango,” Mr Shorten said.

Earlier, Mr Pyne ruled out referring any Liberal MPs with questions over their status at the same time after Labor released legal advice at the weekend that Jason Falinski was a dual national.

He refused Mr Shorten’s renewed request for joint referrals of the Labor MPs and Nick Xenophon Team MP Rebekha Sharkie, as well as Mr Falinski and government MPs Nola Marino, Julia Banks and Alex Hawke.

“Jason Falinski has absolutely no case to answer,” he said.

“Even Labor’s own legal advice said that the Polish Government would not recognise Jason Falinski as a national or a citizen.”

He dubbed it a “smokescreen” to distract from Ms Lamb’s case.

Mr Pyne said Jason Falinski has ‘no case to answer’. Picture: Kym Smith

Senior Labor frontbencher Tony Burke told ABC this morning the citizenship saga would not end unless the government agreed to refer its own MPs.

“If the government refers one person to the High Court the whole national focus will then go to who is the next person under a cloud who has not yet been referred,” he said.

“And we will spend the entire year still talking about whether or not we have a parliament that is legally making laws. That is a ridiculous outcome.

“The only way to prevent it is, anyone who the Liberal Party thinks the Labor Party has a problem with gets referred and anyone who the Labor Party says on the Liberal side who has a problem gets referred as well.”

Meanwhile, Liberal candidate Jim Molan was sworn in as a senator for NSW today to replace ousted Nationals senator Fiona Nash, who was last year ruled ineligible by the High Court for holding dual citizenship.

The High Court has still yet to rule on who will replace other dual citizens Jacqui Lambie, Stephen Parry and NXT senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore.

It will also this year test the eligibility of Labor senator Katy Gallagher.

A by-election for Labor MP David Feeney’s seat of Batman is expected to be held in March after he resigned last week.