High Court dual-citizenship verdict: Who's in, who's out and what does it mean for the government
The Federal Government has lost its one seat majority in the lower house with the High Court ruling Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is ineligible for parliament.
Australia's constitution bans anyone holding dual citizenship from sitting in parliament, in a section aimed at ensuring MPs don't have split allegiances.
Only two of seven have survived.
How the High Court ruled on the Citizenship Seven
Barnaby Joyce: The court found that at the time of his nomination in 2016 Mr Joyce was a New Zealand citizen by descent through his father, James Joyce, who immigrated in 1947.
The Deputy PM has been banned from sitting in parliament effective immediately and will now need to contest his seat of New England in a by-election that is likely to be held on December 2.
Fiona Nash: The Nationals Senator was also deemed ‘ineligible’ by the High Court after she told the Senate she may also be a dual-citizen.
Ms Nash's Senate seat would ordinarily go to the next person on the NSW coalition ticket, who is in this case the Liberal Hollie Hughes. But the Nationals may insist on one of their own taking it.
Malcolm Roberts: The One Nation Senator has been ruled out of the Senate with his seat going to the next candidate on the Queensland One Nation ticket, Fraser Anning.
Former Greens Senators Scott Ludlum and Larissa Waters,who have already quit, were also improperly elected because they held foreign citizenships, the High Court ruled on Friday.
Nick Xenophon: The South Australian senator, who had already announced he would be leaving the senate, said the irony was not lost on him that he was one of two MPs not disqualified.
Matt Canavan: The Nationals senator has also survived the citizenship saga.
The findings are a savage blow for Malcolm Turnbull’s government, which now holds just 75 of the 150 Lower House seats.
However, the decision does not hand control of the house to Labor, which holds just 69 seats in its own right.
The other five lower house seats are held by independent and minor party members.
The decision comes at a particularly bad time for the Turnbull government, with Minister Michaelia Cash also facing calls to resign over leaks to the media ahead of AFP raids on Bill Shorten’s former union earlier this week.
