Australia's High Court to Decide Deputy P.M.'s Case.
VAUSE: Australia's really conservative coalition is in danger of losing its one seat majority in the House and it's hold on power after it was revealed Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has duel New Zealand citizenship, a potential breach of Section 44 of the Constitution, which forbids any from being a candidate for federal parliament who is a subject or citizen of a foreign power. The citizenship crisis is now threatening the government began last month, when the previous deputy leader resigned because he had duel New Zealand citizenship as well. Since then, four other lawmakers, including the deputy prime minister, have either resigned or come under scrutiny. For weeks, Joyce insisted he was note a Kiwi.</s>BARNABY JOYCE, AUSTRALIAN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: I'm not a New Zealander. You have to apply. You can't a bloody thing. You have to apply to become a New Zealand citizen. And I've never applied to become a New Zealand citizen, nor do I want to.</s>VAUSE: But on Monday, New Zealand's prime minister announced that Joyce was a citizen of that country by descent because his father was born there. The legal issue is now with Australia's high court.</s>JOYCE: To provide clarification to this very important area of the law, for this and future parliaments, I have asked the government to refer the matter to the high court, sitting as the court of dispute of returns.</s>VAUSE: For more, we're joined now by Simon Cowell, with the Centre for Independent Studies. Simon, good to see you.</s>SIMON COWELL, RESEARCH FELLOW, CENTRE FOR INDEPENDENT STUDIES: It's a pleasure.</s>VAUSE: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull seems pretty confident the court will rule in favor of his deputy. This is what he said to parliament.</s>MALCOLM TURNBULL, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: The leader of the national party, the deputy prime minister, is qualified to sit in this hour and the high court will so hold.</s>VAUSE: But it might not be so clear cut. What happens if the court rules that Joyce has violated the constitution? Politically, what comes next for the government?</s>COWELL: So this is an interesting situation going on here. Up until yesterday, when Joyce hit the news, everyone who had the under- citizenship threat was actually in the Senate. In the Senate, what happens is they seem to replace with the next person on the ticket. Unfortunately, for the government, if Barnaby Joyce is found to be a citizen of New Zealand and is found to be ineligible as a result of that, his seat will be declared vacant and there will be a bi-election held. At the moment, the government is very, very low among the public. They've lost 17 news polls in a row. They're really at risk of seeing a strong negative vote. Joyce had a council majority in his seat, so it may still hold on. But they're going to have to fight an election and their government will be up for grabs.</s>VAUSE: All this seems to be a very strange twist for a country that actually prides itself on being a nation of immigrants.</s>COWELL: Absolutely. One of the things you need to keep mind is the section of the constitution has been made since the beginning. We've always had this requirement. And there is actually no restriction on people who were born in foreign countries or who hold dual citizenship from running for parliament in Australia. You don't have to be born here to do it. But what you do have to do is you have to give up that dual citizenship before you run for parliament. What we've seen is a number of people who didn't think they were dual citizens, who were unaware of the situation. In one case, we've had a Senator blame their mother for submitting the forms to become a citizen without their knowledge. But all of these people consider themselves Australian but found out subsequently they aren't.</s>COWELL: Exactly. So the mother submitted the forms for herself and her son with his knowledge, that's one of the cases that were determined by the high court. Whether this is actually something that disqualified someone. But the wording of the section and the rules of the constitution seem pretty clear.</s>VAUSE: OK. Joyce is most famous internationally with his confrontation with Johnny Depp and his two dogs that didn't go to quarantine. That was moving the goal posts. Remember, Joyce insisted at the time that "the rules are the rules and they apply to everyone." This is what he said.</s>JOYCE: Mr. Depp has to either take his dogs back to California or we're going to have to euthanize them. It's time that Pistol and Boo bugger off back to the United States.</s>VAUSE: All this has led to much merriment online. This is some of the postings on Twitter. "Can't wait to see Pistol and Boo's reaction to the Barnaby Joyce dual citizenship news. As he said, rules apply to everyone." Also, "Incredible that the man who went after Pistol and Boos is actually an undeclared foreign pest." And of course, much has been made of the New Zealand connection. Here's a tweet. "Joyce enters parliament on Monday, making sheep noises." But here was a tweet, "Barnaby Joyce, a Kiwi. The signs were there. If only we knew to read them." Holding a sheep. Pretty clever. All of this is pretty much the reaction you would expect from Australia.</s>COWELL: Absolutely. We've fine with that sort of responses. The one I think I like the best is actually Amber Heard, who was Johnny Depp's partner at the time. She tweeted that she had seen a box of New Zealand's national fruits that Joyce enjoys. Finally managed to get through the corn things, which I thought was quite a clever little twist on what happened.</s>VAUSE: Oh, Simon, excellent. OK, I guess we'll see how this all plays out. But it could actually have some very serious consequences for this Australian government. But thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.</s>COWELL: My pleasure.</s>SESAY: And before we go, pop star, Taylor Swift, is celebrating her legal victory after four hours of deliberation. The Colorado jury ruled in favor of Swift in her counter lawsuit against a former radio host. The singer accused David Mueller of groping her at a meet-and- greet in 2013. Mueller was later fired in that incident. The jury also sided with Swift's mother. Mueller had sued her as well, accusing her of interfering with his $150,000 a year contract by making false accusations. Swift was awarded the symbolic one dollar in damages. The pop singer thanked the jury and her legal team for finding on her behalf. She also donates to organizations that help sexual assault victims defend themselves. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Seay.</s>VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Be sure to join us on Twitter, @cnnnewsroomla for highlights and clips from the show. We'll be back with more news after a short break