Barnaby Joyce survives bear pit but there’s no escape for Susan Lamb

Raw emotion and raw politics don’t often mix at such a personal level in parliament as they did yesterday, but when they do it can be explosive and unpredictable.

For Barnaby Joyce, there was a closing of political ranks over the distress for his family at a marital collapse, with universal claims there was no public interest ­element in the media exposure that he is expecting a baby in April with a former staffer.

When Joyce got to his feet in question time, the absolute silence in the parliament showed the decision by all sides not to take political advantage of a personal drama. Labor frontbenchers refused to be drawn into criticism of Joyce and his Coalition colleagues criticised the disclosure.

There was a united front from politicians unwilling to talk about Joyce’s personal life and concerted criticism of the press gallery for ­either reporting the fact at all or, paradoxically, not reporting it ­earlier.

Like a bear in a pit waiting for the dogs to be unleashed, Joyce looked angry and anxious but powerless to put off the moment of standing before the nation. While not escaping the bitter rebuke of his wife and accusations of hypocrisy, Joyce was spared his usual Labor baiting in recognition that his marital collapse was out of bounds.

For Labor’s Susan Lamb, who delivered a tearful, heartfelt personal appeal not to be referred to the High Court for judgment on her British citizenship on grounds of a painful desertion by her mother at the age of six, the reaction was neither totally silent nor free of political baggage.

After months of Coalition threats to refer the Queensland MP to the High Court and potential disqualification from parliament, along with Bill Shorten’s refusal to agree to her solo referral, Lamb volunteered a searing personal experience to the nation. It was a story she said she did not share with close friends, let alone the parliament, but she chronicled the rift with her mother from when she dropped her off at school and “never came back to pick her up”.

It is Lamb’s failure to provide her parents’ marriage certificate to the British government that leaves her “unrenounced” as a British citizen. Lamb told MPs, including Malcolm Turnbull and Christopher Pyne, who have called for her referral to the High Court, this lifelong rift prevented her approaching her mother to seek the required document. It was harrowing, but government MPs reminded Labor of attempts to disqualify Josh Frydenberg for want of complete documentation from a family escaping the Holocaust. The government line demanding her referral remains unchanged.

Political emotion and sympathy lead to unpredictable ­outcomes.