Turnbull lacks credibility while his ministers’ citizenship is unclear

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has “failed to demonstrate judicious leadership’’.

The government’s performance has gone from bad to worse. As he loses touch with reality, the Prime Minister is losing his grip on power. His failure to take control of the citizenship crisis has ­resulted in a full-blown political crisis. As a result of spectacularly poor political judgment, the universal issue of all MPs’ eligibility under section 44 of the Constitution has become a particular issue for the Coalition.

The refusal of the Turnbull government to come clean on MPs’ citizenship status demonstrates a dangerous disregard for the Constitution and disrespect for the Australian electorate. If the PM continues to reject political transparency and accountability, he risks losing the confidence of the party and parliament.

On Friday Labor took the moral high ground by supporting a voluntary audit of MPs’ citizenship in parliament. The Greens seized the accountability prize when their MPs resigned upon learning they were probably eligible for dual citizenship.

On both counts, Turnbull has failed to demonstrate judicious leadership. He delayed accountability by ­advising then deputy PM Barnaby Joyce not to resign despite valid questions about his citizenship status.

He is refusing calls for political transparency in the form of a voluntary audit of MPs’ citizenship. Both decisions make him look untrustworthy. By extension, the Coalition appears unwilling to uphold the Constitution. When a statesman demonstrates casual disregard for his ­nation’s constitution, it is a warning sign. For months the PM has been urged to investigate whether members of his government are in violation of section 44 of the Constitution. Instead of ­ensuring that MPs are not eligible to be foreign state citizens, he suggested the Constitution should conform to multicultural ideology.

No nation is a multicultural nation. Multicultural ideology is tribal. Its full realisation requires the dissolution of the nation-state. Rather, Australia is a multiracial nation. The government should understand that it is precisely the push to codify multiculturalism as state ideology that creates ­demand for proof of national and patriotic loyalty.

The Constitution codifies ­undivided loyalty to the Australian state and citizens as a political requirement. Section 44 rules that any person who “is under any ­acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power … shall be ­incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives”.

The truth that politicians must have undivided loyalty to the ­nation they serve for that nation to survive is self-evident. In a representative democracy, the principle of undivided patriotic loyalty assumes greater importance. The political contract between Australian citizens and federal politicians holds that MPs make laws and policies in the national interest. Government stability and the future of the nation-state rest on public trust in parliamentarians to put the national interest ­before all other interests, personal or ­political.

While holding dual citizenship, or being eligible for it, does not necessarily make a politician less patriotic, there is significant poten­tial for it to compromise the national interest in key areas. ­Decisions about foreign policy and foreign investment, national security, defence and immigration are potentially vulnerable to a conflict of interest among politicians with plural citizenship. In the 21st century, where Australia is engaged in protracted battles on foreign soil, it is clearly unacceptable for MPs to hold foreign citizenship or eligibility for it.

The question of how to progress from the stalemate on citizenship and the Constitution is urgent. Like many, I had hoped that the government would move in the general direction of greater accountability during the week. On Friday high hopes were dashed. The PM returned from ­Israel and joined cabinet ministers in a theatre of the absurd by equating the reasonable request for transparency on MPs’ citizenship status with genocide. If the astonishing display was meant to throw journalists off the scent, it failed. Now more than ever the Coalition looks as though it has something to hide.

The dual citizenship question must be resolved and the gov­ernment should devise a plan of ­attack before parliament resumes. To rebuild trust with the public and avoid a no-confidence ­motion in parliament, the Coali­tion should embrace an audit of MPs’ citizenship. Should the Turnbull leadership team refuse to adopt a more transparent and accountable approach to governing in the national interest, it would be prudent for individual MPs to become proactive. At a minimum, they should publish proof of sole Australian citizenship on social media.

The PM’s disregard for widespread concern about MPs’ citizenship status threatens the Coalition’s political credibility, parliamentary authority and policy momentum. Almost every policy area that gives the Coalition an edge over Labor depends on ­appeals to the national interest, Australian values and patriotism. For example, it will be near ­impossible for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to overhaul Australian citizenship laws while the citizenship status of Coalition MPs is in doubt. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will struggle to mount an argument by appeal to Australia’s national interest when her colleagues won’t issue proof of constitutionally valid Australian citizenship. Any argument for ­Defence becomes moot and border security looks like a farce if the government is composed of MPs whose national loyalties appear divided by multiple citizenship.

It should be clear that being born in a foreign country does not necessarily diminish a citizen’s love for and loyalty to Australia. Yet section 44 of the Australian Constitution is a necessary pro­phylactic against plural national loyalties in parliament. It becomes more critical to the national interest — not less — in a multiracial immigrant nation.

In recent surveys, Australians have voiced support for strong border security and strict vetting of immigrants.

Outside the fashionable quarters inhabited by the political-media class, people ­remain patriotic and want to preserve the Australian way of life rooted in our shared culture and common values. Members of parliament who decline to uphold the Australian Constitution and its demand for undivided national loyalty cannot expect the loyalty of the Australian people in return.