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| Barnaby Joyce a New Zealand citizen? That's heart-stopping territory for the Coalition | Barnaby Joyce a New Zealand citizen? That's heart-stopping territory for the Coalition |
| (6 months later) | |
| The government controls the lower house by one vote. Only the high court stands between it and significant political bother | |
| Katharine Murphy Political editor | |
| Mon 14 Aug 2017 09.00 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 14 Aug 2017 09.01 BST | |
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| If you want a tangible marker of a prime minister broiling in a political pressure cooker, look no further than Malcolm Turnbull’s sweeping declaration in question time that Barnaby Joyce is eligible to sit in the parliament and the high court will hold it so. | If you want a tangible marker of a prime minister broiling in a political pressure cooker, look no further than Malcolm Turnbull’s sweeping declaration in question time that Barnaby Joyce is eligible to sit in the parliament and the high court will hold it so. |
| Not might hold, or will likely hold based on the legal advice we have from the solicitor general, but the high court will hold. | Not might hold, or will likely hold based on the legal advice we have from the solicitor general, but the high court will hold. |
| Never mind the separation of powers. Never mind the appearance of firing off a direction to the good justices (people who, one suspects, don’t appreciate directions from parliamentarians, and in this case, the most powerful parliamentarian in the land). | Never mind the separation of powers. Never mind the appearance of firing off a direction to the good justices (people who, one suspects, don’t appreciate directions from parliamentarians, and in this case, the most powerful parliamentarian in the land). |
| Never mind the risk that you’ll look pretty damned foolish if the high court has a different idea of what it might do with the deputy prime minister, and your words come back to haunt you. | Never mind the risk that you’ll look pretty damned foolish if the high court has a different idea of what it might do with the deputy prime minister, and your words come back to haunt you. |
| Short-term political calculations – the need to project a sense of certainty, to project a sense that your government isn’t turning to custard around you – trumps everything, apparently. | Short-term political calculations – the need to project a sense of certainty, to project a sense that your government isn’t turning to custard around you – trumps everything, apparently. |
| All’s fair in love and in question time. Just fire up and worry about the consequences later. | All’s fair in love and in question time. Just fire up and worry about the consequences later. |
| Incidentally the attorney general, George Brandis, wasn’t quite so rash when asked for his view later on Monday afternoon. | Incidentally the attorney general, George Brandis, wasn’t quite so rash when asked for his view later on Monday afternoon. |
| When he was asked whether he thought Joyce was in the clear, despite being claimed as a citizen by the New Zealand government, Brandis nodded confidently and said: “I believe so. That is my judgment. | When he was asked whether he thought Joyce was in the clear, despite being claimed as a citizen by the New Zealand government, Brandis nodded confidently and said: “I believe so. That is my judgment. |
| “That is my expectation.” | “That is my expectation.” |
| Let’s just call the collective expectation a fervent hope, because everyone (apart from the prime minister) knows the result of a high court deliberation cannot be known in advance. | Let’s just call the collective expectation a fervent hope, because everyone (apart from the prime minister) knows the result of a high court deliberation cannot be known in advance. |
| The constitutional law expert George Williams says Joyce is in “clear difficulty” given the New Zealand government has claimed him as a dual citizen. “On the face of it, he is disqualified,” Williams says. | The constitutional law expert George Williams says Joyce is in “clear difficulty” given the New Zealand government has claimed him as a dual citizen. “On the face of it, he is disqualified,” Williams says. |
| Another leading constitutional law expert, Anne Twomey, says there will be valid arguments to present to the court, “but to be utterly confident is somewhat optimistic”. | Another leading constitutional law expert, Anne Twomey, says there will be valid arguments to present to the court, “but to be utterly confident is somewhat optimistic”. |
| Williams says the Turnbull government will be relying on the court to reach a “more generous interpretation” of the constitutional requirement spelled out at section 44 – to find in essence that the provision as it stands is unworkable at a time when so many citizens in a country have overseas connections. | Williams says the Turnbull government will be relying on the court to reach a “more generous interpretation” of the constitutional requirement spelled out at section 44 – to find in essence that the provision as it stands is unworkable at a time when so many citizens in a country have overseas connections. |
| Twomey says the government will be hoping that the court finds that having citizenship by descent is different from being a citizen through birth, but she notes that line of legal reasoning is optimistic rather than certain. | Twomey says the government will be hoping that the court finds that having citizenship by descent is different from being a citizen through birth, but she notes that line of legal reasoning is optimistic rather than certain. |
| There is a great irony here. | There is a great irony here. |
| If Williams’ and Twomey’s line of analysis holds, then a government chock-full of restive conservatives – on the face of it, a bunch of black-letter law types – appears to be reliant on a burst of judicial activism from the high court to get itself out of significant political bother. | If Williams’ and Twomey’s line of analysis holds, then a government chock-full of restive conservatives – on the face of it, a bunch of black-letter law types – appears to be reliant on a burst of judicial activism from the high court to get itself out of significant political bother. |
| You’d laugh at it if this was a laughing matter. Which it most decidedly isn’t. | You’d laugh at it if this was a laughing matter. Which it most decidedly isn’t. |
| Let’s think about the ways in which this isn’t a laughing matter. | Let’s think about the ways in which this isn’t a laughing matter. |
| This latest case involves a lower house MP. The Turnbull government controls that chamber by one vote. | This latest case involves a lower house MP. The Turnbull government controls that chamber by one vote. |
| In the event Turnbull is not Nostradamus or Perry Mason and Joyce is ruled ineligible, this government is not going to want to fight a byelection anywhere in the country at this political moment. The result of that could go any which way. | In the event Turnbull is not Nostradamus or Perry Mason and Joyce is ruled ineligible, this government is not going to want to fight a byelection anywhere in the country at this political moment. The result of that could go any which way. |
| The Nationals are also not going to want to lose their strongest brand in the bush, which is what Joyce is, by a country mile. This is seriously heart-stopping territory in a practical sense. | The Nationals are also not going to want to lose their strongest brand in the bush, which is what Joyce is, by a country mile. This is seriously heart-stopping territory in a practical sense. |
| The government might console itself with the fact it has agreements on confidence and supply with some of the crossbench independents in the lower house – a post-election precaution. | The government might console itself with the fact it has agreements on confidence and supply with some of the crossbench independents in the lower house – a post-election precaution. |
| But a prime minister who struggles to govern his own people, issue after issue, is not going to want to enter a new phase of trying to herd new cats in the lower house. | But a prime minister who struggles to govern his own people, issue after issue, is not going to want to enter a new phase of trying to herd new cats in the lower house. |
| Not on your nelly. | Not on your nelly. |
| Say it ain’t so, bro. | Say it ain’t so, bro. |
| Australian citizenship | |
| Katharine Murphy on politics | |
| Barnaby Joyce | |
| Australian politics | |
| Malcolm Turnbull | |
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