The citizenship question that can’t be answered

ANOTHER Coalition minister has been dragged into the citizenship saga. But he says this document proves he has no case to answer.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull visits the Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Picture: AP Photo/Oded Balilty

LABOR leaders are rejecting a citizenship audit of Parliament with its most senior senator today saying only the High Court can decide the issue.

The Senate cross bench and the Greens want a thorough accounting of what nationalities members of Parliament hold to end the round of uncertainty over eligibility for election.

Opposition Senate leader Penny Wong said Labor had nothing to fear from an accounting of citizenship, but no one had explained how it would be done.

“No one had put forward a proposition that deals with some of the concerns — who would run it, who would deal with it, how do you get a result,” she told ABC radio.

“And the likely result (of appointing a judge to do the job) would be that they would lead to matters that had to be determined by the High Court.”

The disruption has so far seen the High Court remove Nationals Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash from Parliament, and dual citizenship this week forced the President of the Senate, Stephen Party, to resign.

Other casualties have been Greens Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters, and One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts.

Josh Frydenberg says this document proves he is not a dual citizen.

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is the latest to be caught by accusations of dual citizenship, which under the Constitution disqualifies anyone from sitting in Parliament.

Mr Frydenberg today described as “absolutely absurd” claims he had Hungarian citizenship through his mother, who arrived in Australia in 1951 as a stateless Jewish refugee.

He said his mother lost citizenship during German occupation of World War II.

He has legal advice that a definitive House of Lords decision of 1976 affirmed that the Nazi era stripping of citizenship from subjected people remained effective regardless of later German laws aimed at undoing the removal.

No laughing matter for Josh Frydenberg and Barnaby Joyce. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

“It is a baseless assertion as my mother was stateless when she and her family came to Australia post war from the Holocaust,” Mr Frydenberg told news.com.au today.

“It is absurd to think I could involuntarily acquire citizenship of a foreign country from a stateless mother and grandparents.”

He said to get Hungarian citizenship would require “a lengthy and formal application and interview procedure”.

Senator Wong said Mr Frydenberg’s case showed an audit was not the simple solution some had made it out to be.

“I can understand why the Australian people in particular are demanding this end and I can understand demands for an audit,” said Senator Wong.

However, she said, “We are yet to be convinced it is the best way forward because the audit doesn’t resolve the fundamental issue which is that the High Court is the only body that can determine if someone is invalid.”

Meanwhile, backers of former prime minister Tony Abbott have continued to use the instability to criticise the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull, with former Liberal minister Kevin Andrews the most public.

“What we have at the moment is a clear frustration on the part of the Australian public that they are not getting what they want, and whoever the leader is they need to be responding to this,” he said on ABC TV.

“Now Mr Turnbull is the leader. There’s no move to change him that I’m aware of.

“But we do need to respond to the Australian people. We need to listen to them and we need to lead.”