Citizenship drama flares again, with four MPs and one senator on the way out after High Court ruling
Updated
Four federal MPs have announced their resignation from Parliament after the High Court ruled Labor's Katy Gallagher ineligible because she did not renounce her British citizenship in time.
Rebekha Sharkie, Josh Wilson, Susan Lamb and Justine Keay have announced today they are quitting Parliament in the wake of the Gallagher ruling.
There will be a total of five by-elections, because Labor's Tim Hammond is also resigning for family reasons.
Ms Sharkie says it is clear the ruling also applies to her circumstances, so she will stand aside and run for her Centre Alliance party at a by-election.
The three Labor MPs all told Parliament they accepted the High Court's ruling applied to them, and said they would re-contest at by-elections.
The most marginal seat is Longman, held by Labor's Susan Lamb, who has been under most pressure because the Government argues she is still a British citizen.
Ms Lamb won the seat on Queensland's Sunshine Coast by a margin of less than 1 per cent.
The LNP has not yet pre-selected a candidate for the seat. It is not expected former member Wyatt Roy would stand again.
Voters will also be sent back to the polls in Braddon in north-western Tasmania, which Labor's Justine Keay won from Liberal Brett Whitely in 2016.
Ms Keay had argued she took all the steps she could to renounce her British citizenship but she has now accepted the High Court decision.
Ms Sharkie, from the Centre Alliance Party — formerly the Nick Xenophon team — won the seat of Mayo from Liberal Jamie Briggs in 2016.
Her victory in the previously safe Liberal seat was the only Lower House win for the Xenophon team at the last election.
There will be two by-elections in Western Australia.
Josh Wilson, who won the safe Labor seat of Fremantle in 2016, has also resigned because of the High Court's Gallagher decision.
He was chosen by Labor after it dumped its previous candidate during the last election campaign, which is when he took action to renounce his British citizenship.
The fifth by-election is for the seat of Perth, where Labor's Tim Hammond announced last week he would resign for family reasons.
Topics: government-and-politics, australia
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