High Court citizenship saga: We’ll now have five very expensive by-elections

JUST under half a million Australians will vote in five very expensive by-elections by the end of June, including about 100,000 in the seat of Longman, north of Brisbane.

The High Court has ruled that Labor Senator Katy Gallagher was ineligible to stand for election. File picture

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JUST under half a million Australians will be going to the polls by the end of June, including about 100,000 in the outer suburban seat of Longman, north of Brisbane.

The High Court, which caused 10 senators and members to exit Parliament last year, has again struck and four more lower house MPs have resigned.

Katy Gallagher was ruled ineligible for Parliament before four others resigned — Justine Keay, Josh Wilson, Susan Lamb and Rebekha Sharkie.

Three are Labor — Susan Lamb in Longman (who still might have a question mark about her citizenship), Justine Keay in northern Tasmania and Josh Wilson in Fremantle, south of Perth — and the other is a former Nick Xenophon team MP, Rebekha Sharkie, who represents Mayo in the Adelaide Hills.

These by-elections will be joined by one for Perth in Western Australia which is required because the sitting Labor MP Tim Hammond resigned earlier this month because of family pressures.

The by-elections have been sparked because the High Court has clarified the rules for the circumstances in which someone can renounce the citizenship of another country.

Labor’s Senator Katy Gallagher from Canberra was disqualified today because she had not taken reasonable steps to renounce her British citizenship in a timely manner — to paraphrase what the decision said.

The Court left no doubt that the timing is not something that can be argued about — you have either renounced or you haven’t at the time you nominate. If you haven’t, bad luck — there is no wriggle room.

As to reasonable steps, there is no wriggle room either. You have to do everything you can possibly do without any argument about when the documents were sent off or lodged and when the formal process of renunciation happened.

This is a black letter confirmation of the black letter High Court decision from the early 1990s.

Labor member for Longman Susan Lamb during Question Time. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

We will now have five very expensive by-elections — about $85 million on top of the $11.6 million in legal fees the taxpayers has been slugged for in arguing the High Court cases — because more of our politicians couldn’t do the most basic thing.

They couldn’t follow the first paragraph in the “How To” guide for prospective candidates running for Parliament.

This says you can’t run if you’re a dual citizen and, if you are, you have to do something about it before you file any papers to stand for Parliament.

This been a very expensive exercise in telling our MPs how to get their paperwork in order.

Dennis Atkins is The Courier-Mail’s national affairs editor.