Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said on Friday he will resign as leader of his party and will move to the backbench after weeks of pressure over an extra-marital affair with his former media secretary. Joyce said he will step down on Monday as leader of the National party, the junior partner in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls centre-right coalition. He will remain in parliament,...
Same-sex marriage will become legal in Australia after a historic bill was passed in the House of Representatives. An overwhelming majority of MPs voted to change the Marriage Act, eight days after a similarly decisive result in the Senate. The vote set off immediate celebrations in parliament, prompting cheers, applause and even a song. The result brings an end to more than a decade of robust and...
The term kwaussie - a hybrid of Kiwi and Aussie - has been named Australias word of the year. The portmanteau came to prominence in 2017 through the nations dual citizenship political saga, said the Australian National Dictionary Centre. It describes a person who is a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand - as was the case with Australias deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce. Mr Joyce...
A ninth Australian parliamentarian will be unseated by a dual citizenship saga, as Senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore, from minor party the Nick Xenophon Team, has said she will resign after learning she inherited UK citizenship from her Singapore-born mother. Australias constitution bans federal politicians from having dual citizenship. The saga has claimed the jobs of eight other politicians sin...