It came as somewhat of a shock when the Australian government attacked the New Zealand Labour party and its leader Jacinda Ardern yesterday, a personally attack over the fact that their Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has dual citizenship and therefore under Australian law cannot remain in office.
They're even banging on like we aren’t all bloody related.
Rather than step down like the previous Australian MP's who hold dual citizenship, the swamp dwelling Barnaby bunyip is clinging to the lie that he didn’t know his father was a New Zealander. But if that wasn't bad enough, the Australian government is unbelievably blaming the Labor and Labour parties for their own incompetence, and using the word Kiwi to denigrate and spit tacks at us from over the ditch.
Yesterday, the Guardian reported:
Australia accuses New Zealand opposition of trying to bring down government
Australian government minister Christopher Pyne accused the ALP of being part of a conspiracy to bring down the government.
“Clearly the Labor party are involved in a conspiracy using a foreign government, in this case New Zealand, to try and bring down the Australian government,” he said.
“How many other foreign governments, or foreign political parties in other countries, has the Labor party been colluding with to try to undermine the Australian government?
If this brings down the Australian government, they have nobody to blame but themselves.
Despite their accusations of treason, the Australian Liberal party trying to re-attribute blame by levelling their attacks against the opposition and the next Prime Minister of New Zealand has backfired, with the truth of the matter quickly being revealed.
Yesterday, Radio NZ reported:
Australian media enquiries led to Joyce citizenship discovery
Enquiries by Australian media - not the New Zealand Labour Party - led to Internal Affairs discovering Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is a New Zealand citizen.
…
Mr Joyce told the Australian Parliament he was alerted to the situation after enquiries were made by the New Zealand Labour Party to the New Zealand government.
But Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne said Australian media had asked the department about Mr Joyce before Labour MP Chris Hipkins filed written questions on citizenship.
Clearly Australian journalists were simply doing their jobs.
The Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, must have known this before going on the attack to try to falsely attribute blame and influence the New Zealand election... and if she didn’t she’s entirely incompetent.
In constant contact with her colleges in New Zealand eh! You've got to wonder if the Australian Liberal party colluded with the National party to try and undermine Labour's new leader Jacinda Ardern. It certainly looks that way.
The real stupid thing is Barnaby Joyce thinking he can just renounce his New Zealand citizenship by making a public statement. Perhaps he thinks his father suddenly stops being a Kiwi simply through the sheer weight of his unparalleled arrogance.
Here's Channel 9's Laurie Oakes reporting:
.@Channel9 political editor @LaurieOakes has more on whether the issue could damage Australia's relationship with New Zealand. #9News pic.twitter.com/qTOmpR5c8h— Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) August 15, 2017
The deluded Liberal party cannot be allowed to retain Joyce after he personally campaigned against opposition MP’s who have dual citizenship, campaigning that resulted in them stepping down.
If the Australian Liberal party thought the law shouldn't apply, they had the opportunity to move to amend the constitution when the disqualification clause was revealed. Instead they used it to leverage perfectly good politicians out of the house in an attempt to undermine the opposition.
Joyce has New Zealand citizenship and under the Australian constitution he must resign. In my opinion he should take Julie Bishop with him. There is no question of law or confusion over section 44, and by ignoring the constitution the desperate Liberal Party is in breach of Australia’s Supreme Law. There can be no other interpretation just because Barnaby is a tory.
In the mean time, because they believe the rules don’t apply to them, the dishonest Barnaby Joyce wins this week’s Asshole Award. It appears he's the first Australian to do so.
