Maverick crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie’s citizenship status is under a cloud following reports her father was born in Scotland.
The former Australian Defence Force soldier, who shares the balance of power in the Senate, insists she isn’t a dual British citizen by descent.
‘I’m happy to put on record that I’m satisfied that my parents are both Australian citizens and I have no concerns about me being a dual citizen because of where they were born or came from, in the case of my father, as an infant,’ the 46-year-old Tasmanian senator said in a statement on Wednesday night.
Maverick Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie’s father was born in Scotland, putting her citizenship under a cloud
The revelation comes as Pauline Hanson vows to check with the British Home Office to ensure she’s not a dual citizen, through having a set of English grandparents.
A day after she stressed she had no reason to worry about being caught in the parliamentary citizenship crisis, the One Nation leader on Wednesday agreed to check her standing.
‘If it would make everyone happy, and I’ve got no problems about it, I will actually make inquiries,’ Senator Hanson said while on the Queensland election campaign trail.
‘My parents were not born in England, therefore I’m not entitled to British citizenship.’
Pauline Hanson has been pecked by the media in regards to her British citizenship status
Earlier this week Liberal backbencher John Alexander, a former tennis champ, was drawn into the dual citizenship saga, as his father was born in Britain.
It comes as former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce campaigns for his old seat of New England, in northern New South Wales, after the High Court disqualified him from sitting in parliament for being a dual New Zealander.
Since July, six federal members of parliament have been found to be in breach of section 44 of the constitution as dual citizens, with former Senate president Stephen Parry last week quitting as a Liberal senator for Tasmania.