Turnbull cries foul over New Zealand ‘plot’ to topple him

Hipkins has denied knowing there were questions about Joyce’s citizenship, saying he asked the questions of Dunne to clear up the law. In Australia, home to a large Italian immigrant population, Italian is the third-most common language spoken in households after English and Chinese.

Faced with the news that Joyce is the latest pollie discovered to be holding dual citizenship – which may force him out of politics altogether – Heard clearly decided there ain’t much fun in maintaining a dignified silence.

The revelations could spark a crisis for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal-National coalition government, which won national elections previous year with 76 seats in the House of Representatives – a narrow one-seat majority.

What going on in Australia?

“How on Earth can this Government have someone in the office of Deputy Prime Minister when they don’t even know if he’s meant to be a Member of Parliament?”

On Tuesday, she chimed in on Mr Joyce’s difficulty – to effectively have the last laugh.

I suppose it’s a bit like us claiming New Zealand’s talent – Russell Crow, Neil and Tim Finn and many more – as our own, except the Kiwis aren’t fussy and automatically give descendants of their people citizenship.

But with a dual citizenship scandal now rocking Australian politics, Joyce’s own embarrassment is unlikely to go away any time soon.

“And meanwhile, also, the New Zealand High Commissioner here was paying a visit to Barnaby Joyce and telling him he might have a problem”.

Wait, why is that a problem?

Another week, another three MPs positions in question over the citizenship status. Both immediately and voluntarily resigned from the senate.

He has lodged papers to renounce his New Zealand citizenship, and asked Australia’s High Court to make a ruling on his eligibility to sit in parliament.

“It’s quite a serious issue for them, a one vote majority and the appearance of a New Zealand party being involved in the removing of that majority so I can understand why there was a bit of heat in it”.

Her remarks were labelled “false claims” by NZ Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, who lodged a formal complaint with the Australian High Commission in Wellington. Bishop has now accused the Australian Labor Party of colluding with its NZ counterpart to undermine the government, and said she’d find it hard to work with the country if Labour were to win the upcoming national election.

The New Zealand government later said Joyce held New Zealand citizenship as his father was born there.

Via Twitter, Dunne dismissed suggestions Hipkins was responsible for Joyce’s predicament as “utter nonsense”, adding: “While Hipkins’ questions were inappropriate, they were not the instigator”. “They were not the instigator”. “Australian media inquiries were”.

“What I want to see is … a stable government”, she told Sky News. And while leaving the office, he quoted, “I will not fight to stay on in Parliament”.

Turnbull was lucky to scrape back into government after waiting too long to call a double dissolution election aimed at gaining an electoral advantage over Labor, only to lose the one he had inherited.

Following this, Liberal senator Matt Canavan discovered he had dual citizenship issues stemming from his mother reportedly registering him as an Italian resident overseas in 2006.

“It hasn’t (come up) until now because the two parties have had a mutual interest in not bringing it up”, George Williams, dean of Sydney University Law school, told CNN.

Turnbull said he expected the court to rule in Joyce’s favour but independents are smelling blood.

As two others succumbed (National cabinet minister Matt Canavan and One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts), arguments raged as to whether those caught up in the fiasco were negligent or victims of circumstance.

What do Johnny Depp and Amber Heard think about this?

“To comfort Mr. Joyce in his hour need, I have sent him a box of New Zealand’s finest Kiwi fruit (assuming this passes his biosecurity laws)”.