Amid growing uncertainty over the citizenship status of members of Parliament, Katy Gallagher has refused to explain whether she was ineligible to sit in the Senate for more than a year before the last federal election.
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High Court rulings against the eligibility of five MPs last month suggest Senator Gallagher may have been ineligible from the time she replaced Kate Lundy in the Senate in March 2015 until she completed Labor Party candidate vetting ahead of the 2016 federal election.
Senator Gallagher told Parliament in September her parents Betsy and Charles Gallagher were both British by birth and became Australian citizens after migrating, but she only formally renounced any entitlement to British citizenship by descent from her father after party advice in April last year.
About 20 years after Charles Gallagher's death, Labor officials decided it would be difficult to substantiate his citizenship status.
The uncertainty prompted the former ACT chief minister to formally renounce any claim to British citizenship by descent, by way of an official form and payment of a processing fee, ending any potential conflict beyond doubt.
But the court's ruling against the now former NSW Nationals senator Fiona Nash suggests Senator Gallagher might have previously sat in Parliament in breach of the rules.
Ms Nash's father was a British citizen. Changes to UK law in the 1980s made her a dual citizen by descent and therefore ineligible to nominate under section 44(i) of the constitution.
It says a person is disqualified from standing for Parliament if they are "under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power".
The court said as a person who was born a legitimate child outside the UK and its colonies to a father who was a citizen other than by descent, Ms Nash had become a citizen of the United Kingdom, including acquiring the right to live there.
Senator Gallagher told parliament in September that she had never taken steps to become a British citizen but had investigated the option of moving to the UK to work in the mid-1990s.
She made inquiries to the British High Commission in Australia, resulting in advice that in order to become a British citizen she would be required to go through a formal application process.
She was told any application would probably be granted, but was not automatic.
Her plans changed after her father became ill and she remained only an Australian citizen.
Senator Gallagher would not be found in breach of the rules today and the High Court would only consider eligibility in the current Parliament.
Asked if she had been in breach of the constitution before the 2016 election, Senator Gallagher would not comment.
"I have made a detailed statement to the Senate covering these matters and nothing has changed since then," she said this week.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called for an end to what he described as a "witch hunt" against MPs on Friday, while Opposition Leader Bill Shorten offered to work with the government on a formal process to end the citizenship saga.
