Turnbull leading minority government after Liberal John Alexander quits over dual citizenship

MALCOLM Turnbull’s Government has lost its parliamentary majority after Liberal MP John Alexander yesterday became the latest victim of the dual citizenship fiasco and resigned his seat.

• Legal expert believes Rebekha Sharkie is doomed over citizenship

MALCOLM Turnbull’s Government has lost its parliamentary majority after Liberal MP John Alexander yesterday became the latest victim of the dual citizenship fiasco and resigned his seat.

However, the Prime Minister said even though he was now leading a minority government, there was no need for an early election.

“We absolutely are providing stable government,” Mr Turnbull said in Vietnam, where he is attending the APEC conference.

However, ANU professor John Wanna said an early election was possible if more MPs were forced to quit Parliament because they were found to be dual citizens.

Prof Wanna said he expected the Liberal Party would be digging deep into the background of Labor MPs in the coming week to try to force further resignations.

John Alexander announces his resignation over the continuing citizenship saga.

“Anyone who has a Greek name, Polish, anyone from Cyprus, anyone with any kind of heritage, anyone who has any New Zealand connection, they will be looking for anything back to parents and grandparents and then say these Labor people should be referred to the High Court,” he said.

If more MPs are forced to resign, it would result in a raft of by-elections.

“I think Turnbull will go to the Governor-General and say we have got to have an emergency election just for the Reps because there are so many by-elections we may has well just have an early election,” Prof Wanna said.

Mr Alexander quit his Sydney seat of Bennelong after telling reporters on “the probability of evidence” he was a British citizen because his father had been born in England in 1907 and migrated to Australia in 1911.

Mr Alexander followed the lead of former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, a New Zealand dual citizen, in resigning from Parliament.

The High Court had also previously excluded four senators from parliament, finding they were in breach of Section 44 of the Constitution through their ties to foreign nations.

Mr Joyce will fight a by-election in his NSW seat of New England on December 2, while Mr Alexander is hopeful of clarifying his own status in time to run again in Bennelong with a poll likely sometime in mid-December.

Cartoonist Peter MacMullin's view of the citizenship crisis engulfing Australian federal politics.

Mr Alexander’s resignation means the Coalition now holds 74 seats in the reduced 148-seat chamber. The Labor Party holds 69 seats and there are five crossbenchers.

This means that if Labor and the crossbenchers combined, they could defeat the Government on the floor of the chamber when Parliament resumes on November 27. The Coalition’s 74 seats include Speaker Tony Smith, whose vote is only called for to break a tie.

But Mr Turnbull said yesterday he maintained the support of the backbenchers on matters of confidence and supply. He also issued legal advice over the weekend that NXT’s Rebekha Sharkie and Labor MPs Justine Keay and Susan Lamb were ineligible to sit in Parliament.

Mr Alexander informed the Prime Minister on Friday night that he would be quitting.

“My right to remain in Parliament depends on my belief that I am solely Australian,” he said.

“Given what I have learned about the Constitution and understanding now of the High Court decision just a couple of weeks ago, I can no longer, with sufficient certainty, maintain the belief that I have held through my 66 years.”