One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts eligibility to be referred to High Court

A Greens’ motion to refer the eligibility of One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts to the High Court has secured the numbers to pass.

One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts in the Senate in Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts will have his election referred to the High Court as early as today following weeks of scrutiny over his citizenship status.

The Australian has confirmed the three Nick Xenophon Team senators, Jacqui Lambie, Cory Bernardi and Labor will support a Greens motion to send Senator Roberts to the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns.

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The Senate will ask the court to determine if Senator Roberts should be disqualified from parliament under section 44 of the Constitution, which says a citizen of a foreign country is incapable of running for parliament.

Senator Roberts was born in India to a Welsh father and claims he was never British, despite saying his renunciation was registered by the UK government in December last year — six months after nominations closed and five months after the election.

Senator Roberts also argues he took “reasonable steps” to renounce any dual citizenship before he nominated to become a One Nation candidate.

Senator Xenophon told The Australian his party had decided there was sufficient evidence to justify the referral, though Attorney-General warned against the move yesterday.

“It is a very serious matter for a group of politicians sitting in a parliamentary chamber to effectively disqualify or put a question mark over the eligibility of one of their number to sit in that chamber. It’s a decision that should only be made if there is sufficient evidence to support it,” Senator Brandis told Sky News.

The government, which needs to keep the bloc of four One Nation senators on side, is expected to vote against the Greens motion.

Greens MP Adam Bandt accused Senator Roberts of misleading Australians over his citizenship status and said his former colleagues Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam “did the right thing” and quit parliament when they discovered they were dual nationals.

“The Greens did the right thing when it became apparent because Greens senators knew about their own personal history, Malcolm Roberts clearly knows and he’s clearly not being upfront about it,” Mr Bandt told ABC radio.

“Malcolm Roberts has some serious questions to answer. He went out publicly and said he’s never been a citizen of any other country and now there’s document that suggests the opposite.”

Department of Immigration records obtained by Buzzfeed surfaced yesterday showing Senator Roberts signed a document stating he was a British citizen when he applied for Australian citizenship as a 19-year-old in 1974.

The Australian revealed last month that a Malcolm I. Roberts born in Disergarh, India, in 1955, appears on the General Register Office’s Register of British Nationals Born Overseas 1818-2005, which cites the British High Commission Birth Indices as its source.

Senator Roberts’ spokesman said he would make a statement in the Senate.