Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann

QUESTION: You just lost twenty-six Newspolls in a row how does that make you feel?

MATHIAS CORMANN: We continue to do the job that the Australian people elected us to do. That is to implement our plan for a stronger more prosperous economy, more jobs and to ensure that Australia is safe and secure. The polls come and go. We focus on doing the job that we were elected to do.

QUESTION: Do you take any positives out of it at all?

MATHIAS CORMANN: We continue to focus on doing the job that we were elected to do. In the end there is only one poll that counts as you know, that is the one at the next election.

QUESTION: The citizenship issue continues to roll on. What is going to happen this week?

MATHIAS CORMANN: Bill Shorten knows that he has got at least one other Member of Parliament, who according to the advice of her own lawyer is a dual citizen. Susan Lamb, the Member for Longman, is a British citizen as well as an Australian citizen. So she is here in breach of the Australian Constitution. She should resign. Clearly Bill Shorten is frightened to have a by-election at the same time in the seat of Batman and in the seat of Longman. In Batman he is running an even more left-wing campaign than we have come to know of him. He knows that in Longman, people will respond negatively to that. So he is clearly trying to sequence the by-elections. Even though he knows that Susan Lamb should long have resigned.

QUESTION: Will the Government use the Parliament to refer Susan Lamb to the High Court?

MATHIAS CORMANN: We want to see what Bill Shorten does. Bill Shorten has the opportunity to do the right thing. Bill Shorten knows that Susan Lamb is here in breach of the Constitution. Bill Shorten should show some leadership. He should ask Susan Lamb to resign from the Parliament.

QUESTION: You don’t rule out the possibility of referring her to the High Court?

MATHIAS CORMANN: I am not going to speak for my colleagues in the House of Representatives. What I would say to you is, there is an opportunity for Bill Shorten to do the right thing. Bill Shorten knows that Susan Lamb is a dual citizen. There is no reason why she should stay when David Feeney decided to go.

Thank you.