Five Australian federal MPs have announced their resignation from Parliament after the High Court ruled Labor's Katy Gallagher ineligible because she did not renounce her British citizenship in time.
Australian Labor Party MP Katy Gallagher has resigned. Photo: Australian Labor Party
The Labor senator lost her seat after the Australian High Court ruled she did not renounce her British citizenship in time for the 2016 election.
The court's findings prompted three more Labor MPs and a Centre Alliance's MP to resign from Parliament.
Ms Gallagher referred herself to the High Court after questions were raised about whether she was eligible to sit in Parliament, but she always maintained she took all reasonable steps to renounce her foreign status before the closure of nominations for the 2016 federal poll, despite the Commonwealth claiming she left her run too late.
The UK Home Office did not register her renunciation until August, more than a month after the election.
Ms Gallagher issued a statement which she said respected the outcome of the High Court case, and apologised to her constituents.
"To have my place in the Senate end like this today is very deeply disappointing, but I believe that I have more to contribute to public life," she said.
Rebekha Sharkie, Josh Wilson, Susan Lamb and Justine Keay have also announced today they are quitting Parliament in the wake of the Gallagher ruling.
There will be a total of five by-elections, because Labor's Tim Hammond resigned for family reasons.
Ms Sharkie said it was clear the ruling applied to her circumstances, so she would stand aside and run for her Centre Alliance party at a by-election.
The three Labor MPs all told Parliament they accepted the High Court's ruling applied to them, and said they would re-contest at by-elections.
The most marginal seat is Longman, held by Labor's Susan Lamb, who has been under most pressure because the Government argues she is still a British citizen.
Ms Lamb won the seat on Queensland's Sunshine Coast by a margin of less than one per cent.
The LNP has not yet pre-selected a candidate for the seat. It is not expected former member Wyatt Roy would stand again.
Voters will also be sent back to the polls in Braddon in north-western Tasmania, which Labor's Justine Keay won from Liberal Brett Whitely in 2016.
Ms Keay had argued she took all the steps she could to renounce her British citizenship but she had accepted the High Court decision.
Ms Sharkie, from the Centre Alliance Party - formerly the Nick Xenophon team - won the seat of Mayo from Liberal Jamie Briggs in 2016.
There will be two by-elections in Western Australia. Josh Wilson, who won the safe Labor seat of Fremantle in 2016, has also resigned because of the High Court's Gallagher decision.
- ABC
