Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question's to the Prime Minister. On 9 November the Leader of the House was asked by David Speers: 'You're saying if your parents are born overseas and you don't have a document that shows you renounced citizenship, you're off to the High Court?' And the Leader of the House answered, 'That would be the assumption because that's obviously what the process says.' If a government member has acknowledged the existence of such documents in their statement but is keeping the copies secret, will the Prime Minister refer them to the High Court?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What the Labor Party are seeking to do here is to distract attention from the fact that they have, on their side, members who are plainly at very high risk, I would say, of being found to be ineligible by the High Court.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I'm not making any more predictions. I'm down to a 50 per cent ratio.

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left!

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't want my strike rate to go any lower—although I was speaking to one of the colleagues here on the crossbench, who advised me that his strike rate was zero, so I said: 'Go for your life. It can only get better.'

But seriously, Mr Speaker, we have a position where we have had Senator Gallagher referred by Labor to the High Court because she was a UK citizen at the time she nominated. Fair enough! She will make an argument that filing the renunciation paper was enough. The High Court will consider that. It is clearly a matter for the court. Only the High Court can determine that matter, and it's plainly in the public interest that it be determined. This area of the law needs more certainty, more clarity, and members who are in her position should go to the High Court for precisely the same reason.

If the member for Batman is, as he appears to be—unless he can find some paperwork to the contrary—in fact a dual citizen right now, he shouldn't be sitting here today, because he knows that, following the High Court's ruling, following the rejection of the arguments the government made to take a more lenient approach, it is a very black letter law approach to this section. The fact is that what Labor now wants to do is to create some sense of political equity or balance by referring members of the coalition who are not dual citizens to the High Court. I say to the Leader of the Opposition: if you believe any of our members are dual citizens, put up or shut up; actually state the case. He has no evidence, no basis, to make those claims. This is simply a distraction from his hopeless failure on leadership.

Of course, it's not just dual citizens he's been covering up for, trying to bamboozle the media with talk about his great vetting procedures. It is also, of course, a senator who has much more than a dual citizenship issue at stake. It's Senator Dastyari. And there the issue is one of loyalty. Who is the Leader of the Opposition loyal to? Is he loyal to Australia and our national interests, or is he loyal to the man who runs the faction that put him in his job? (Time expired)