Barnaby Joyce: Baa-rnaby’s citizen pains spread to New Zealand politicians
UPDATE: Former Liberal senator Cory Bernadi has questioned whether the Turnbull government knew about Barnaby Joyce’s dual citizenship and tried to cover it up.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Barnaby Joyce: Chaos as deputy PM reveals he has NZ citizenship
- Citizenship scandal could spread to Labor Party
A FORMER Liberal senator has questioned whether the Turnbull government knew about Barnaby Joyce’s dual citizenship and tried to cover it up.
For its part the government has unleashed a ferocious personal attack on senior Labor figure Penny Wong, accusing of her lying about a senior staffer’s role in a saga threatening to bring down the deputy prime minister.
Cory Bernardi, who quit government ranks to sit on the crossbench, believes the government has “overcooked” claims of an ALP-NZ Labour conspiracy against the coalition.
From Tamworth to Tenterfield, my office has been inundated with people offering their support. Thanks New England. #auspol pic.twitter.com/gfYjwmdoVB
— Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) August 15, 2017
“If the journalist knew about it, the Labor Party knew about it, how did the government not know about it?” he asked on Sky News when talking about Mr Joyce’s NZ citizenship by descent.
“That is the real question: were they trying to cover something up?”
Senator Bernardi voted with Labor, the Greens and other crossbenchers to thwart a government move to censure Senator Wong today.
It was another embarrassing parliamentary defeat for the government which could only muster support from One Nation and procedural backing from independent Derryn Hinch.
Senator Wong dismissed the move as a “grubby baseless smear” designed to distract attention from the government’s problems.
Attorney-General George Brandis sought to have the Senate censure Senator Wong over her alleged involvement in the revelation Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was a New Zealand citizen when he stood for parliament.
Senator Wong has admitted her chief of staff was involved in fishing for information during a conversation with a friend from the NZ Labour Party.
The censure move was defeated 34-29 after the Greens and crossbenchers including the Nick Xenophon Team, Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm and former Liberal Cory Bernardi voted with Labor.
Earlier, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop accused Senator Wong of being “up to her neck in it” over New Zealand’s probe into Joyce’s citizenship status.
“She orchestrated what New Zealand Labour themselves call wrong and unacceptable conduct, conduct that should never have happened,” Ms Bishop told Sky News.
The government is refusing to budge on Barnaby Joyce’s parliamentary future given the Deputy Prime Minister’s dual New Zealand citizenship as the ongoing debacle sparked a war of words across the Tasman.
Ms Bishop took aim at Senator Wong this morning after it was revealed her chief of staff Marcus Ganley had spoken to the New Zealand Labour MP whose questions to the NZ Parliament sparked the probe into Mr Joyce’s citizenship status.
“Today we find that Penny Wong was up to her neck in it,” Ms Bishop told Sky News.
Ms Bishop said it “beggars belief” that Senator Wong had not know that her chief of staff was contacting a sitting NZ Labour MP.
Senator Wong has hit back, saying the “Kiwi’s under the bed scare campaign” were the actions of a desperate government.
She conceded it was “unwise” of Mr Ganley to speak of the citizenship laws but he and NZ Labour MP Chris Hipkins had just been chatting as mates.
“I was not aware those questions had been asked until after this story broke in Australia on Monday,” she said.
“My chief of staff was not aware that those questions were asked until after that story broke on Monday. He has had contact with mates in New Zealand, including Mr Hipkins.
“At no stage in that conversation did he request that those questions be lodged.”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also accused Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of “conspiring with the Labour Party of New Zealand to undermine the government” — doubling down on an earlier statement from Ms Bishop that the Labor leader “has serious questions to answer, this is highly unethical, at least”.
The Foreign Minister’s blast led New Zealand Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, who faces an election next month, to complain to the Australian High Commission.
However, she confirmed an ALP staffer had raised the dual citizenship discussion with NZ Labour MP Chris Hipkins, who went on to put questions about the legal status of an Australian born to a New Zealand parent to Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne.
She also conceded Mr Hipkins should have known about the issue of dual citizenship in Australian Parliament, given the high-profile scandal engulfing a number of MPs.
“Hipkins should never have asked those questions … I’ve made that absolutely clear to him,” Ms Ardern said.
“Regardless of what information was known this was not an appropriate question for us to be asking or to be involved in.
“Australian domestic politics is for them not for us.
“The Australian government and their relationship with us is too important.”
However, the New Zealand government said it had begun to look into the issue of Mr Joyce’s citizenship after inquiries by the Australian media.
The Turnbull government remains confident the High Court will confirm that Mr Joyce is eligible to sit in Parliament despite his dual citizenship because he didn’t know he was a dual citizen and could not have a split allegiance.
His citizenship case will be heard with four others in the High Court in Brisbane on August 24.
The High Court will determine whether Mr Joyce, former Greens senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam, One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts and former minister Matt Canavan are eligible to sit in parliament under section 44 of the constitution due to their dual citizenship.
Regardless of the outcome at the High Court, the government is still in no immediate danger of losing its working majority with Nick Xenophon Team MP Rebekha Sharkie and independent Cathy McGowan committing their support.
The government would only have to rely on independent MPs if the High Court determined Mr Joyce was ineligible to sit in Parliament, and he lost a subsequent by-election in New England, an unlikely outcome.1
Former Liberal MP Jackie Kelly was forced to resign, renounce her New Zealand citizenship, and recontest a by-election in 1996. She won with an increased margin.
The Deputy Prime Minister also said he had renounced his dual New Zealand citizenship, while questions remained about the eligibility of a number of other parliamentarians with Labor refusing to release proof they were not dual citizens.
The government threatened to refer a number of Labor MPs — Maria Vamvakinou, Tony Zappia, Justine Keay and Susan Lamb — who it maintains have not proven they have renounced their dual citizenship, to the High Court.
Ms Vamvakinou told The Daily Telegraph she received acknowledgment she had renounced Greek citizenship on August 2000, while Mr Zappia said he had a letter dated July 2004 from Italian authorities he was no longer an Italian citizen.
Ms Lamb said the British Home Office had received her renunciation form in May last year, but all three declined to provide documentation proving those renunciations.
Liberal MPs Julia Banks and Linda Sudmalis are also facing questions about their citizenship, with each having parents born overseas. Ms Banks, who has Greek heritage, said she was “not a dual citizen and never have been”.
Passenger arrival cards show Ms Sudmalis’ mother Valerie arrived from London in 1951, meaning she may have conferred British citizenship on her daughter. Her office declined to comment.
Man killed in head-on crash in Sydney’s southwest
A man has died after two utes collided in Sydney’s southwest on Thursday morning. A man and boy were also injured in the collision.
‘Ute tax’ fears reignited over new car pollution cap
The Coalition has raised concerns new car pollution caps could drive up the cost of family and tradie-friendly SUVs and utes ahead of the Prime Minister’s crunch meetings with Asian leaders.