Bill Shorten’s British citizenship: displays classic hypocrisy, Angus Taylor says

Liberal Craig Kelly breaks ranks with the Turnbull government and calls for an audit of all MPs’ eligibility to sit in parliament.

Labor Leader Bill Shorten douses the flames over a “conspiracy theory’’ surrounding his British citizenship.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly has broken ranks with the Turnbull government and called for an audit of all parliamentarians’ eligibility to sit in parliament.

Mr Kelly said this afternoon that all MPs should be forced to prove that they rescinded any claims to the citizenship of another country.

The audit has been pushed by the Greens but rejected by the Coalition and Labor.

“The mess with Section 44 reflects unfortunately on the government and we get punished for it in the polls,” Mr Kelly told Sky News.

“I would like ... an audit of every member of parliament that actually has to show evidence to make sure that they are (eligible).

“We have had today questions about Bill Shorten and he is there saying: ‘oh no no I’m fine’. And they’ve asked him to show the documents and he hasn’t shown them.”

Shorten’s ‘hypocrisy’ over citizenship

Assistant Minister for Cities Angus Taylor has attacked the “classic hypocrisy” of Bill Shorten for refusing to show documentation he rescinded his British citizenship.

Mr Taylor said this morning that the Opposition Leader was playing “tricky politics” and would not hold himself to the standards he sets the government.

“We are seeing the classic hypocrisy here from Bill Shorten that we just see again and again and again,” Mr Taylor told Sky News this morning.

“He is not even prepared to issue the documentation to demonstrate that he is a single citizen of Australia only and he is not a citizen of the UK.

“And we’ve got others Susan Lamb, Justine Keay, a range of them where the evidence is not clear at all and they are not willing to give the evidence to the Australian public”

Opposition frontbencher Andrew Leigh, meanwhile, likened calls for Labor MPs to prove they are eligible to sit in parliament to the pressure Barack Obama faced to hand over his birth certificate after facing claims he was Kenyan.

Assistant Minister for Cities Angus Taylor says Bill Shorten is playing ‘tricky politics’. Picture: David Geraghty

Mr Leigh rejected that Labor MPs should provide documentation showing they are not dual citizens.

He said it was part of a game played by “right-wing extremists” who copied the tactics of a group of conservatives in the United States who claimed the former US president was born in Kenya.

“We have an absolutely transparent process and this call for the production of certificates is frankly the analogy of the US birther movement,” Mr Leigh told Sky News this morning.

“I don’t like right-wing extremists at the best of times but I particularly dislike them when they’re just playing derivative games.

“This is just them photocopying the right-wing strategies of the extremists in the United States who ran that extraordinary campaign to get Barack Obama to release his birth certificate.”

Donald Trump was among the high-profile conservatives who argued Mr Obama was born in Kenya and put public pressure on him to release his birth certificate, which he eventually did.

Earlier, Bill Shorten slapped down claims he needed to prove he renounced his British citizenship, declaring the “desperate” government was rolling out a conspiracy he was a “secret English agent”.

Mr Shorten said this morning that he renounced his British citizenship in 2006, a year before he entered parliament.

“I am fully aware that the government is desperately trying to peddle its newest conspiracy that I am a secret English agent,” Mr Shorten said this morning.

“The reality is, no I am not. I renounced my citizenship in 2006. There is no whiff of anything to the contrary.

“This is a government desperate to distract attention away from the fact that not one, but two of their senior ministers, have a cloud over their constitutional eligibility, including the Deputy Prime Minister.”

Mr Shorten received British citizenship by descent through his father, William Robert Shorten, who emigrated from Newcastle upon Tyne to Australia before the Labor leader was born.

Mr Shorten questioned whether Nationals ministers Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash are eligible to be ministers, despite Attorney-General George Brandis yesterday rejecting these claims.

He said the government should not vote on controversial legislation until the High Court makes its decision.

“The Prime Minister needs to explain why he is hanging on to two ministers who have a cloud over their constitutional eligibility, but he was happy to let another one go,” Mr Shorten said.

“This is a government who doesn’t do the basic homework, doesn’t check the eligibility of their candidates and we think that they need to get back to business.”

Mr Shorten said there were no Labor MPs who had questions surrounding their eligibility to sit in parliament, rejecting the need for some MPs to show documentation to prove they renounced a foreign citizenship before entering parliament.

“We have a strict vetting process. There is no cloud over any of our people. The constitution has been around, it is not a surprise note which we have just discovered, they should have done their homework.,” Mr Shorten said.

“It is not Labor’s fault if government MPs and senior government ministers are not in compliance with the Constitution. That is their fault and the Constitution needs to be upheld and

honoured until it is changed.”