Media Release

Regarding the resignation of a third Australian Senator to face court for a potential breach of the Australian Constitution if holding dual citizenship when elected:

If you want to belong to another country then ta-ta, good-bye, go home.

If you’re telling me someone was made a citizen of another country without your knowledge, you’d be seriously testing my intelligence… I mean, give me a break!

Ignorance of the law has never been an excuse, and I don’t think that any jury or court in Australia – or the public – would be so gullible to believe you could be unaware you’d been made a citizen of another country.

There is no jury or court that would be that gullible to believe that. They might be prejudiced to make that decision, but not gullible enough to believe that his mummy made him a citizen of Italy without him knowing.

And the Deputy Prime Minister’s comment that ‘Libya could sign him up as a citizen without his knowledge’ is a ridiculous analogy.

The argument that if another country made you a citizen against your will... it ain’t gonna fly, that one! So they better start thinking of better lines than that!

The resigned Government Minister is still a young man and could go again in the next election. I think the LNP is still strong enough to get him elected.

But what is important is that a Northerner is chosen to fill the vacancy of Northern Australia Minister.

Now, I don’t believe George Christensen will sell out. But if he becomes the Minister, he can’t vote for a Royal Commission into the banks or for a fuel ethanol mandate.

And it’s a tough one for George – but he is well aware of what happened to his predecessor De-Anne Kelly when she became a Minister and lost the seat of Dawson because she could no longer take a stand.

But I’m more interested in a Northerner, rather than a Queenslander, filling the role. It is infinitely more important to the national interest.

And Nigel Scullion is the obvious choice. His affiliation is with the CLP in the NT – which is not affiliated with the Liberal Party, whereas the LNP in Qld is. So the Queensland LNPs in the Australian Parliament are just a rubber stamp, whereas Senator Scullion has room to manoeuvre and is most definitely a true Northener.