Turnbull knows he’s on solid ground with citizenship strategy

Thanks to the expiry of a series of time limits, the politicians in Canberra are now in control of whether the High Court will be able to resolve any more doubts about their citizenship status.

Disappointed candidates for election and individual voters had just 40 days after the last election in which to ask the High Court to resolve disputes over dual citizenship and other irregularities.

That meant Malcolm Turnbull was on solid ground yesterday when he dared those with concerns about any politician’s citizenship status to raise those concerns in parliament.

In practical terms, there is nowhere else to go — due to the fact the time limits set down in the Commonwealth Electoral Act do not apply to referrals from parliament.

The only way of sidestepping the gatekeepers in parliament would be to ask the High Court to issue the rarely used writ of “quo warranto” — which would declare that a public officer is not qualified to hold the office in question.

Either of these courses, however, would not get to first base unless the court was presented with sufficient factual information to enable it to apply the law. And that is where Turnbull’s strong rejection of a citizenship audit looks like a tactic designed to delay the inevitable.

An audit need not take on the form of a wasteful commission of inquiry headed by a retired judge. Such an exercise would resolve nothing.

There is another way of getting to the truth.

Before the last election all candidates signed statements asserting they were not dual citizens. How onerous would it be to simply require them to produce documentary evidence supporting those signed statements?

In the case of cabinet minister Josh Frydenberg, much of the essential detail that will determine his citizenship status has not yet been made public.

But there is a clear similarity with the circumstances that led the High Court to find in favour of Nationals senator Matt Canavan. Both cases involved a retrospective foreign citizenship law. But that is not why Canavan won. There was simply not enough evidence to prove he held Italian citizenship.

With Frydenberg, the operation of Hungary’s citizenship law will determine his fate. That will need to be tested by expert evidence, which means this minister might find himself referred to the court.