COWAN MHR Anne Aly is scrambling to confirm her dual citizenship has been quashed as several of her caucus colleagues prepare to fight by-elections to regain their seats.
Dr Aly cancelled her Egyptian citizenship a month before the close of nominations in 2016, but is yet to produce documents to show the renunciation occurred in time.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten has told Dr Aly – a first term MP from Western Australia – to reconfirm her advice from the embassy.
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READ NOW“She will have to make that public,” Mr Shorten told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Labor leader had assured Australians Dr Aly was eligible to sit in parliament.
Mr Turnbull now wants proof.
“She has to provide some proof that she was not a citizen of another country at the time she nominated for parliament,” he told reporters in Sydney.
Earlier, Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese took an embarrassing trip down memory lane.
Mr Albanese for months “categorically” insisted his party had rigorous vetting checks and there were no dual citizens in its ranks.
He was forced to revisit those assurances on Friday after four Labor members were flushed out of federal parliament due to their foreign ties.
“Well, it’s regrettable that it’s happening. The High Court have made their decision. We have accepted their decision,” Mr Albanese told the Nine Network.
“We have accepted the umpire’s judgment and we are getting on with the business now of making sure those MPs return, to continue to make a contribution for their electorate and make a contribution here in Canberra.”
The coalition is aiming to increase its wafer-thin majority by winning back the South Australian seat of Mayo, which it lost at the last election.
Georgina Downer is being tipped to run in the seat her father, former foreign minister Alexander Downer, held from 1984 to 2008.
Labor’s Susan Lamb, Josh Wilson and Justine Keay all quit their lower house seats on Thursday following the High Court decision to disqualify their caucus colleague Katy Gallagher.
Ms Sharkie formally resigned on Friday morning, apologising for putting her constituents through another election, and vowing to fight to reclaim her seat.
The pack of ousted MPs are now facing by-elections to be held in a “Super Saturday” poll as early as June 16.
Mr Shorten argues the by-elections are a battle between the coalition’s corporate tax cuts and the opposition’s plans for bigger personal income tax relief.
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