AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull may see his government collapse should three lawmakers, including his deputy, with dual citizenship be deemed ineligible to hold office, Bloomberg reported today.

The High Court will on Thursday begin hearings to interpret a rule that bars dual nationals from sitting in parliament.

Australia’s constitution bans dual citizens from parliament on the basis that lawmakers should be loyal solely to the country in which they were elected.

The 117-year-old law, which has slipped into obscurity, now threatens Turnbull’s Liberal-National coalition government, which holds a slim one-seat majority in Parliament’s lower house. 

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, Rural Health Minister Fiona Nash, and Resources Minister Matt Canavan are among seven lawmakers engulfed in the fiasco.

The crisis shaped up last month when a minor Greens party senator stood down after revealing he had New Zealand citizenship. 

It has since engulfed three more lawmakers from the Greens, minor party One-Nation and the government, putting pressure on Turnbull to stand down representatives until the matter is heard by the court.

Canavan has since stepped aside, but the government has allowed Joyce and Nash to remain in the Cabinet, opening itself to charges of double standards. 

Whichever way the court rules later this week, the 62-year-old prime minister’s fate may already be sealed.

“Turnbull’s inability to deal with the recent chaos has exacerbated existing views among voters that his government is rudderless,” said Martin Drum, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Notre Dame in Perth. 

“Controversies are always a lot worse when they affect governments already seen to have lost focus.”

Leader of main opposition Labor party, Bill Shorten has said his party has strict vetting processes and none of his lawmakers have been caught up in the fiasco. 

“This is a government that doesn’t do the basic homework, doesn’t check the eligibility of their candidates,” Shorten told reporters yesterday. – August 22, 2017.