The Julia Banks eligibility flurry may not be the last such panic for Malcolm Turnbull or Bill Shorten

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The Julia Banks eligibility flurry may not be the last such panic for Malcolm Turnbull or Bill Shorten

By Mark Kenny and national affairs editor

If it weren't for the extraordinary circus in the Trump White House, Australian politics would strain credulity right now.

Duly elected senators turn out not to have been duly elected after all and one of them – cabinet minister Matt Canavan – was reduced to pleading ignorance for his failure to renounce unwitting Italian citizenship.

Leaving aside his mother's role in signing him up in 2006, the High Court may decide it was his singular responsibility, before signing his nomination form, to take reasonable steps to ascertain his Italian bloodlines. The first step being a simple question.

At least two senators, and more likely four, will have gone before this controversy has played out as the eccentric One Nation senator, Malcolm Roberts, also teeters due to past British citizenship.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has failed to impress voters in marginal seats in Sydney and Melbourne.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has failed to impress voters in marginal seats in Sydney and Melbourne. Credit: Louie Douvis

And remember, two senators from the 2016 election have already hit the fence: Rod Culleton and Bob Day, both ruled ineligible after the fact.

As the government sweats on Canavan's case, other federal representatives have attracted the dual citizenship focus, the latest being the impressive Liberal newcomer Julia Banks, who sits in the House of Representatives.

Her Victorian seat of Chisholm was the only one wrested from Labor's grip in last year's election, an election so tight the PM dipped into his own wallet towards the end to cling to power.

Thus Chisholm, it might legitimately be said, was the 76th seat. Its loss would reduce the Turnbull government to a minority show.

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Since the Canavan bombshell, this was the obvious fear: that a Coalition MP from the lower house could be struck off, plunging the Turnbull government into crisis.

After furious checking by Liberal officials, including calls to the Greek embassy, it seems she is in the clear.

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But it may not be the last such panic. Each will have its own particular details and, in any event, this dual citizenship question is uncharted ground, legally speaking.

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