https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ ... 246bacf211
BILL Shorten has refused to apologise for his repeated claims that no Labor politicians could be dual citizens because of the party’s strict vetting processes.
The Labor leader has been left with egg on his face after the High Court ruled Labor Senator Katy Gallagher was ineligible to sit in Parliament because she had failed to renounce her British citizenship by the 2016 federal election — a story first revealed by The Daily Telegraph in November.
The judgment triggered the immediate resignation of four more politicians — Labor MPs Justine Keay, Josh Wilson and Susan Lamb along with crossbencher Rebekha Sharkie. They all plan to recontest their seats in a super-Saturday of by-elections, expected to be held next month. The Liberal Party is planning to contest Ms Keay’s Tasmanian seat of Braddon, Ms Lamb’s Queensland seat of Longman and Ms Sharkie’s South Australian seat, Mayo, recently held by the Liberals, which are all marginal. But the Turnbull Government is unlikely to run a candidate in Mr Wilson’s Western Australian seat of Fremantle.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was not right the three Labor MPs who were ineligible to sit in Parliament were still using taxpayer entitlements as they refused to quit before Friday.
“They have said they are ineligible, they have acknowledged they are ineligible and they still have not resigned, so they are drawing salaries and using MPs entitlements,” Mr Turnbull told ABC radio today.
For 10 months, Mr Shorten has repeatedly claimed none of his MPs could possibly be dual citizens because of Labor’s airtight vetting process for political candidates.
“We have a strict vetting process. There is no cloud over any of our people, let’s be straight here,” he said in August in Sydney.
Mr Shorten repeated the line whenever he was asked about a Labor politician’s potential foreign citizenship.
He even rejected Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s request in August to refer all politicians with any questions over their citizenship status to the High Court.
While agreeing it was “manifestly in the national interest” for the High Court to determine eligibility, Mr Shorten wrote: “The Labor Party has the strictest processes in place to ensure all candidates are compliant with the Constitution prior to their nomination for election. Therefore, I politely decline your offer.”
Still, Mr Shorten used the opportunity to attack Mr Turnbull, writing the citizenship issue “goes to the legitimacy and integrity of your Government”.
In an embarrassing performance yesterday, Mr Shorten offered no apology or any semblance of regret for misleading the public.
Instead, 11 times he blamed the ALP’s lawyers and said the High Court had set a new precedent....CAN HE TELL US WHEN THEY CHANGED THE CONSTITUTION.. 
“At all times the Labor Party has acted in good faith. I have relied upon the legal advice provided to me by the Labor Party,” he said.
The High Court’s judgment makes it clear Labor’s interpretation was flawed.
It was a point the court clarified in the case of Nationals Senator Matt Canavan in October.
“It is not sufficient for the exception to section 44 to apply for a person to have made reasonable efforts to renounce,” the judgment says.
“In (the Canavan judgment) it was explicitly said that the majority ... did not suggest that a candidate who made a reasonable effort to comply with section 44 was thereby exempt from compliance with it.”
The Telegraph revealed Ms Gallagher may have been a UK citizen when she nominated for the election, sending in her renunciation form only weeks before voting began.
This newspaper reported in August that Ms Gallagher never renounced her entitlement to Ecuadorean citizenship because her mother was born there.
It is understood the Ecuadorean Embassy has still not cleared Ms Gallagher of being a citizen, despite Labor’s frantic efforts.
WHAT IS IT WITH LEFTIES... THEY NEVER EVER ADMIT THEY MADE A MISTAKE....EVEN WHEN ITS IN BLACK AND WHITE.......
