Labor draws up Coalition citizenship hit list

Labor has drawn up a hit list of 14 Coalition MPs and Senators who it says fail the government’s test of possible dual citizenship.

Labor has drawn up a hit list of 14 Coalition MPs and Senators who it says fail the government’s test of possible dual citizenship.

The move follows Attorney-General Christian Porter’s comments yesterday that some Labor MPs “have not done what is required” to prove their renunciation of dual citizenship had been completed.

Opposition leader affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus accused Mr Porter of taking the government down a “very dangerous path”, by creating “a test that many of his own MPs fail”.

Attorney-General Christian Porter. Picture: Kym Smith

“Mr Porter is setting a higher test for Labor MPs than his own colleagues, which just confirms his ludicrous claims have no credibility,” he said.

“Unless Mr Porter is willing to throw the same mud at his own colleagues, I suggest he keep his baseless and nonsensical squealing to himself.”

The list includes a number of Coalition MPs who Labor says have failed to provide evidence their citizenship has been renounced, including Julia Banks and Alex Hawke, who both have Greek heritage.

But both MPs have provided letters from the Greek embassy saying they cannot be considered citizens.

Others on the Labor list have tenuous claims to foreign citizenship through maternal grandmothers and grandfathers.

Alex Hawke was included on Labor’s hit list. Picture: Kym Smith

Mr Porter said yesterday he was prepared to accept a letter from a foreign embassy on an MP’s citizenship status as “authoritative” evidence.

He made the comment in relation to Labor MP Anne Aly, who obtained a letter from the Egyptian Embassy stating she was not a dual citizen.

Labor MP Anne Aly. Picture: Kym Smith

Labor MP Emma Husar, who holds the marginal western ­Sydney seat of Lindsay by 1.1 per cent, broke her silence yesterday to declare she is “not a dual citizen”, after Mr Porter’s attack.

The register shows Ms Husar and fellow NSW Labor MP Emma McBride sought to renounce their dual citizenship but neither provided proof the application was acted upon.

Mr Porter said there remained a cloud over the citizenship status of some Labor MPs.

“There are members of the Labor Party who just haven’t abided yet by the (citizenship) register,” he said.