[h=1]Barnaby Joyce is a New Zealand citizen, NZ PM confirms[/h]
First, Greens Senator (and someone I hugely admire) Scott Ludlam was revealed to be a NZ citizen. The Australian Constitution forbids anyone from being an elected member of parliament while holding dual citizenship. Then, in the same week, Greens Senator (also someone I think is great) Larissa Waters discovererd she was a dual citizen with Canada, despite never have been in Canada since leaving as a baby.
As a Greens supporter, I was gutted. Absolutely gutted. And of course every other party started kicking sand in the Greens' faces, with Malcolm Turnbull (the prime minister) describing it as a "remarkable oversight". Flash forward a few weeks. People are starting to ask whether Senator Malcolm Roberts, climate change skeptic and all-round nutbag was a British citizen at the time of his election, and why he lied about the fact that he once was (thanks Buzzfeed for uncovering that).
Then a member of Malcolm Turnbull's own cabinet found out he apparently had Italian citizenship (who knew?). He resigned from cabinet, but didn't resign as a senator, unlike (showing my bias here) the more dignified Greens Senators who immediately resigned.
And now....
Oh, boy.
And today it has been revealed that the DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA is a NZ citizen, and thus ineligible to be elected to Parliament. This of course is Barnaby Joyce, the man who threatened to euthanise Johnny Depp's dogs because they were foreign pests that had unlawfully gained entry to Australia (a revelation which caused my irony meter to immediately explode).
What's so incredible about this revelation? Because the 4 senators (2 of whom have resigned, 1 of whom should have resigned, 1 of whom deserves to be fired out of a cannon) are obviously elected to the Senate. The Deputy Prime Minister is a member of the Lower House... the Lower House in which the Government need a majority to govern. As fate my have it, the Government currently has a majority of ONE in the Lower House.
And now, of course, a Lower House Coalition member is ineligible. Will the Government keep its majority? Will they be booted out for reasons they themselves mocked others for? Will Johnny Depp finally have his revenge?
To find out what happens next in the wacky world of Australian politics, TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE!!!!
First, Greens Senator (and someone I hugely admire) Scott Ludlam was revealed to be a NZ citizen. The Australian Constitution forbids anyone from being an elected member of parliament while holding dual citizenship. Then, in the same week, Greens Senator (also someone I think is great) Larissa Waters discovererd she was a dual citizen with Canada, despite never have been in Canada since leaving as a baby.
As a Greens supporter, I was gutted. Absolutely gutted. And of course every other party started kicking sand in the Greens' faces, with Malcolm Turnbull (the prime minister) describing it as a "remarkable oversight". Flash forward a few weeks. People are starting to ask whether Senator Malcolm Roberts, climate change skeptic and all-round nutbag was a British citizen at the time of his election, and why he lied about the fact that he once was (thanks Buzzfeed for uncovering that).
Then a member of Malcolm Turnbull's own cabinet found out he apparently had Italian citizenship (who knew?). He resigned from cabinet, but didn't resign as a senator, unlike (showing my bias here) the more dignified Greens Senators who immediately resigned.
And now....
Oh, boy.
And today it has been revealed that the DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA is a NZ citizen, and thus ineligible to be elected to Parliament. This of course is Barnaby Joyce, the man who threatened to euthanise Johnny Depp's dogs because they were foreign pests that had unlawfully gained entry to Australia (a revelation which caused my irony meter to immediately explode).
What's so incredible about this revelation? Because the 4 senators (2 of whom have resigned, 1 of whom should have resigned, 1 of whom deserves to be fired out of a cannon) are obviously elected to the Senate. The Deputy Prime Minister is a member of the Lower House... the Lower House in which the Government need a majority to govern. As fate my have it, the Government currently has a majority of ONE in the Lower House.
And now, of course, a Lower House Coalition member is ineligible. Will the Government keep its majority? Will they be booted out for reasons they themselves mocked others for? Will Johnny Depp finally have his revenge?
To find out what happens next in the wacky world of Australian politics, TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR MORE!!!!
wondering who'll go next.
