The government has been rocked by advice from the New Zealand government that Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce might be a citizen of that country, making him ineligible to be a federal MP.

The deputy prime minister said he could be a New Zealand citizen by descent but Malcolm Turnbull has asked him not to resign

New Zealand's Prime Minister confirms that "unwittingly or not", Barnaby Joyce is automatically a citizen of the nation because his father was born there.

We have it from the New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English that Barnaby Joyce is a citizen of his country. We have it from the Australian Constitution that you can’t be a federal MP if you are a dual national.

The government controls the lower house by one vote. Only the high court stands between it and significant political bother

The constitution got Barnaby Joyce into this trouble, but it also holds the solution. It's time New Zealand finally joined the great Commonwealth of Australia, writes Dom Knight.