Barnaby Joyce says ‘probably’ other dual citizens in parliament
BARNABY Joyce says he thinks there are “probably” other dual citizens sitting in Parliament who haven’t been as upfront as The Nationals were, as he revealed he hadn’t been living at home while campaigning.
NSW
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BARNABY Joyce says he thinks there are “probably” other dual citizens sitting in Parliament who haven’t been as upfront as The Nationals were.
He also revealed he hadn’t been living at his family home while campaigning around his electorate, also opening up about the toll of public life.
Mr Joyce told The Daily Telegraph he and his Nationals deputy Fiona Nash “did the right thing” when they became aware of their citizenship issues, but he suspected there were others less forthcoming and honest.
“One would suspect that would be the case. We put ourselves up. We self-nominated that we had a problem,” he said.
“The Labor Party says you’ve got to prove it ...
“Maybe we should have been like the Labor Party and refused to deliver any information.”
► DAILY TELEGRAPH EDITORIAL: BARNABY NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN
► JOYCE BATTLES INNUEDNO AS COALITION FEARS CITIZENSHIP WOES
Mr Joyce said that they had never seen anything from ALP frontbencher Penny Wong to confirm she was no longer a Malaysian citizen, while Tasmanian MP Justine Keay still had “questions to answer”.
“We’ve never seen anything from Penny Wong that says she got confirmation she was no longer a Malaysian citizen. She might have it but she’s never shown it to anybody.”
When asked whether any of his Liberal colleagues were in a similar position he said: “That’s a question for the Liberal Party.”
However, Mr Joyce said he didn’t believe there should be an audit carried out to confirm politicians’ citizenship status.
He also revealed he hadn’t been staying at his family home near Tamworth, but didn’t want to elaborate further.
He admitted he had considered quitting politics after he found out he was going to the High Court.
When asked about the reasons why, he said: “If you want to do the job properly you’ve got to be dedicated to it and dedication comes at a price. You’re not your own person, you’re owned by the public and the public owns your time.
“It takes a toll on your family, I acknowledge that. You’re doing this job for your nation which means you can’t be at Canberra and at home.”
He said he never discussed his doubts with Malcolm Turnbull and ultimately decided he couldn’t let people in his New England electorate down.
“The thing that swayed me across, the Labor Party would immediately start unwinding all the things we’ve been fighting for,” he said.