The deputy leader of the Nationals, and the Minister for Regional Development, Regional Communications, and Local Government and Territories (what a mouthful), Senator Fiona Nash, has admitted in the Senate today that she is in fact a British citizen.
The NSW Senator, born in Sydney, but currently living out near Young, revealed that she is a British citizen by descent from her Scottish father – a fact that would make her ineligible for election to the Australian parliament under the nefarious section 44 of the Constitution.
Section 44 states that any person who is “a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power” cannot be chosen or sit as a senator or member of the House of Reps.
Nash said that before her father’s death in 2008 she “had little contact” with him, but that she had been told by her parents that she wasn’t a dual citizen.
Nash joins a slew of parliamentarians currently embroiled in citizenship scandals, like sitting members, her fair leader, Barnaby Joyce; the LNP‘s Matthew ‘my mum applied for my Italian citizenship for me’ Canavan; and One Nation “believer” Malcolm Roberts; as well as vanquished former Greens senators, Ludders and Larissa Waters.
In the meantime, Nash has said she will not stand down as either a minister in the Coalition, or as deputy leader of the Nats.
“I can advise Honourable Senators, that on the basis of the solicitor-general’s advice, the Prime Minister has indicated to me that he sees no reason for me to stand aside from my portfolio responsibilities,” Nash said.
https://twitter.com/SenatorNash/status/898127750048788480
The revelation comes just days after bb Barnaby was revealed to be a secret Kiwi, and on the same day as the Sydney Morning Herald unearthed evidence that may suggest Justice Minister Michael Keenan is also a British citizen.
Nash’s case will be referred to the High Court, along with all the others, and may very well lead to nothing.
But gosh, for a second let’s imagine a world where the Nats lose both their leader and deputy to a citizenship “by descent” cock-up, and Mal loses his already precarious one-seat majority in government.
