Foreign Minister says building trust with NZ Labour 'difficult' if it wins election

1:46pm Aug 15, 2017

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said it would be "very difficult to build trust" with a Labour government should the opposition party win the upcoming New Zealand election.

Speaking to reporters in Canberra this morning, Ms Bishop said it was a Labour MP in New Zealand who first question Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's status as an Australian citizen.

Mr Joyce has been referred to the High Court to test whether his New Zealand citizenship-by-descent makes him ineligible to sit in parliament.


Mr Joyce revealed in parliament yesterday he had been advised by the New Zealand high commission he could be a New Zealander as his father was born there.
Minister Julie Bishop in Canberra today. (AAP)
The revelations put the Liberal party in danger of losing its one-seat majority if Mr Joyce is disqualified from parliament.

Having criticised the Australian Labor Party over an incident involving contact with an NZ Labour MP, Ms Bishop was asked whether she would trust a future NZ Labour government.

"I would find it very difficult to build trust with members of a political party that had been used by the Australian Labor Party to seek to undermine the Australian government," Ms Bishop said.
Ms Bishop told reporters Labor leader Bill Shorten "sought to use a foreign political party to raise a serious allegation in a foreign parliament designed to undermine confidence in the Australian government.

"Bill Shorten must reveal who he put up to this dirty tactic and the details of this urging of a foreign political party to be in involved," she said.
Conservative independent MP Bob Katter said the Turnbull government could not rely on his support should it slip into minority.

If the High Court rules Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce ineligible to sit and he loses a by-election in his safe New England seat, the government would need the support of one of five crossbenchers to survive.

"It's back to the drawing board," Mr Katter said, when asked today about guaranteeing confidence and supply.

Another independent MP Andrew Wilkie said he would continue to approach all issues in the parliament on their merits and has "not guaranteed anyone anything".

Nick Xenophon Team MP Rebekha Sharkie said Mr Joyce should step aside from cabinet while the court determines his eligibility.

But she said any suggestion of the government needing crossbench support was a "long, long way away".

"What I want to see is ... a stable government," she told Sky News. "I won't be supporting party games but I do think we could have some greater certainty around cabinet."

Comment was being sought from independent Cathy McGowan and Greens MP Adam Bandt.

Attorney-General George Brandis told TODAY this morning that anyone who doubted Barnaby Joyce as an Australian was “completely absurd”.

“I think most Australians would think that the idea that Barnaby Joyce is anything other than a dinky-di Aussie is completely absurd,” he told TODAY Show co-host Lisa Wilkinson this morning.

Mr Brandis said the information about Mr Joyce’s New Zealand citizenship came about as a result of “skulduggery contrived by the Australian Labor party with the New Zealand Labor party”.

“Mr Joyce had absolutely no reason to think that the operation of New Zealand’s citizenship law would apply to him,” he said.

Labor says Malcolm Turnbull must explain why one minister - LNP Senator Matthew Canavan - has stood aside over citizenship issues while Mr Joyce remains in the cabinet.

Mr Canavan stepped aside last month when he discovered he is an Italian citizen.

“They need to release the advice as to why the situation for Senator Canavan is different to the situation for the member for New England (Mr Joyce),” Labor MP Tony Burke said in parliament yesterday.
Mr Brandis said the two cases are “complex” and different.

“The facts of Senator Canavan’s case, and the legal issues concerning Italian laws… are completely different from the facts and legal issues of Mr Joyce’s case,” he said.

“For a start because they involve the interpretation of Italian law which is a matter of some complexity.”

He said the government is acting on senator general advice for both cases.

New Zealand prime minister Bill English told reporters he had been advised Mr Joyce was a New Zealand citizen by descent, but it was up to the Australian courts to determine whether this affected the Nationals leader's parliamentary role.

Labor leader Bill Shorten used question time to pressure the prime minister over his reluctance to stand Mr Joyce aside, and is expected to ramp up the attack today.

Mr Turnbull said Mr Joyce was qualified to sit in parliament and the High Court would find in favour of him.

He also hit back at Labor’s hard line, threatening to refer five of its MPs to the High Court to force them to prove they’ve renounced foreign citizenship, embroiling more people in the scandal.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2017

i see bishop is doing her best to destroy relations with NZ


someone give her her broom so she can fly away

Mr Hammer wrote on Aug 15^th, 2017 at 2:19pm:

Where is you evidence that Shorten did anything?
It seems that the NZ Pollie acted on Australian schmedia requests.

So somehow, the ALP made Barnaby into a NZ citizen?  Or simply just airing out Barnaby's secret that he is ineligible as a MP?

So is it wrong to point out that Barnaby is illegally in parliament?

stunspore wrote on Aug 15^th, 2017 at 2:23pm:
Not at all. But using support from foreign political parties to get rid of our elected politicians is extremely suspect. That's treachery.

How desperate does NZ have to be to claim people born in other countries as kiwis just because they are the kid of someone who loved NZ some much they fkked off and never came back.


Let them go man, they're gone and they ain't coming back.

Mr Hammer wrote on Aug 15^th, 2017 at 2:24pm:


Not sure how.  Illegal is illegal.  Barnaby had these questions on him before - he ignored them at his peril.

Mr Hammer wrote on Aug 15^th, 2017 at 2:24pm: