The government has asked the High Court to hear the dual citizenship cases of several current and former MPs on September 13-14.
At last count, seven Australian MPs have been found to be under a citizenship cloud, including deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce (standing).
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Seven MPs are now under a cloud as to whether dual citizenship renders them ineligible to be elected to parliament.
It’d be better for ministers like Barnaby Joyce to have any potentially contentious decisions made by an acting minister until their citizenship issues are resolved.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The MPs under a cloud because of dual citizenship need to be very careful about the decisions they make before the matter is resolved. Here’s why.
The decision reveals the striking breadth of the government’s power to deal with asylum seekers and refugees in ways that directly contravene international law.
AAP/Eoin Blackwell
The Australian government had and has the power to do things necessary to establish and maintain its immigration detention facility on Manus Island, despite detention violating PNG law.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is one of five MPs caught out in the ban in dual citizens holding seats.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The High Court ruling over the five MPs’ legitimacy to hold seats may hang on whether they took reasonable steps to renounce their non-Australian citizenships.
For the ABS, even the basic task of sending out ballot papers will not be straightforward.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The key question in a legal challenge to the ‘postal plebiscite’ is whether information about Australians’ opinions on same-sex marriage constitutes ‘statistical information’.
Pauline Hanson said Malcolm Roberts has her full backing.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The Greens are in shock after their co-deputy leader, Scott Ludlam, discovered he is ineligible to sit in federal parliament because he has dual New Zealand citizenship.
Labor will argue David Gillespie ineligible to be an MP based on Section 44(v) of the Constitution.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Given the Turnbull government only has a one-seat majority in the lower house, the immediate stakes of the challenge to David Gillespie’s eligibility are as high as they could possibly be.
Eddie Koiki Mabo (left) and Jack Wailu on the Torres Strait island of Mer.
National Archives of Australia/AAP
The Mabo decision changed Australia’s concept of land ownership. It was a divisive yet important step toward recognising Indigenous rights and establishing native title.
The issue before the court was whether Bob Day was disqualified from being elected because of Section 44(v) of the Constitution.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
After all of the legal controversies of the past year we have ended up in essentially the same position – the Senate will include a One Nation senator from Western Australia, but not Rod Culleton.
Susan Kiefel after she was sworn in as a High Court judge in 2007. She is now Australia’s first female High Court chief justice.
AAP/Andrew Sheargold