Pyne rebuffs Labor request for joint referral of citizenship cases

Christopher Pyne has sent a strongly worded letter to Bill Shorten, refusing his request for a joint referral of MPs.

Labor MP Susan Lamb in the House of Representatives. Picture: AAP

Liberal minister Christopher Pyne has sent a strongly worded letter to Bill Shorten, refusing his request for a joint referral of MPs whose dual-citizenship status is in doubt to the High Court, and telling the Labor leader the crisis has become one entirely of his own making.

The Australian understands the Turnbull government is unlikely to refer Susan Lamb to the High Court, opting instead to maximise the pressure on Mr Shorten to ­either refer the Queensland MP or to ask her to resign.

Labor MP David Feeney resigned last week, prompting a by-election battle with the Greens in his inner Melbourne seat of Batman, after he conceded he had been unable to locate documents proving he was not a dual citizen.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan, who won his dual-citizenship case last year, said Labor was determined to avoid simultaneous by-elections in Batman and Ms Lamb’s Sunshine Coast seat of Longman, as the party was “crippled” in trying to please both groups of voters.

“I’m sure they want to avoid having a vote in Queensland at the same time as having a vote in inner-city Melbourne,” Senator Canavan said, citing the Adani mine, unpopular in Batman, but seen to represent jobs in regional Queensland.

Leader of government business Mr Pyne rejected Mr Shorten’s renewed request for a joint referral after the Labor leader rebuffed Malcolm Turnbull’s invitation last August. Mr Shorten said at the time Labor had “the strictest processes in place to ensure all candidates are compliant with the Constitution prior to their nomination for election”.

The parties’ positions have now reversed, after the government last year referred doubtful cases to the court, with Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash and Senate president Stephen Parry forced to resign and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and Liberal MP John Alexander winning back their seats.

“As it turns out, the Labor Party does not have ‘the strictest processes in place’, and those processes do not ‘ensure all candidates are compliant with the Constitution’,” Mr Pyne wrote.

“If, as you claim, you are truly concerned about people’s confidence in our political system, then you would have accepted the Prime Minister’s offer in August last year. Instead, as usual, you put partisan advantage ahead of the national interest.”

Mr Turnbull yesterday accused Labor of wanting to pursue the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors after it released legal advice it claims shows Liberal MP Jason Falinski is a Polish citizen. The Prime Minister said Labor’s advice was based on “facts that are wrong”. “Jason Falinski has taken legal advice which he has presented into this citizenship register, and demonstrated he is not a citizen of any other countries,” Mr Turnbull told ABC TV.

Labor did not respond to questions about why it had pursued the case of Mr Falinski, who holds the northern Sydney seat of Mackeller, and not that of minister Josh Frydenberg, given Mr Shorten cited Mr Frydenberg’s Jewish “family background” as the reason Labor was not pursuing him in ­December.

Mr Shorten said Australians were sick of the citizenship saga.