SECTION 44 LOOMS STILL

MPs will have 21 days to out themselves as dual citizens or face penalties under a proposal put forward by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to bring the crisis plaguing his government to a conclusion. Labor leader Bill Shorten has indicated he will consider the plan, which is modelled on the often criticised parliamentary register of financial interests, and would force MPs to prove their compliance with the constitution. Fairfax reports the new system could be voted on by the Senate as soon as next week.

In a press conference yesterday afternoon, Turnbull conceded “there may well be a number of line-ball cases” that need to be referred to the High Court. “This is not an audit,” he said.

Even as Turnbull moved to bring the months-long debacle to a conclusion, it continued to rage around him. Former tennis star and Member for Bennelong John Alexander was outed as a potential dual citizen yesterday. Alexander’s father was British and there is no evidence he ever renounced his citizenship, meaning Alexander — who holds the seat with just under an 8% margin — could have inherited the status. Doubt continues to plague Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg as well, with documents indicating his mother did enter Australia with a valid passport and was marked as being of Hungarian nationality on immigration forms.

THIRD HOTTEST YEAR PREDICTED

It is projected 2017 will be the third hottest year on record and the warmest recorded in which an El Nino event did not occur.

That’s according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organisation, previewed in Fairfax papers. Based on the first nine months of the year, 2017 will not exceed the record marks set in 2016 and 2015 but will eclipse the third hottest year, 2014. The report said mean global temperatures are now 0.96 degrees warmer than the 1961-90 average.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is also predicting Australia will endure its third hottest year on record, with NSW and Queensland enduring a particularly hot year.   

THE DEAL THAT WON’T DIE

The government continues to push ahead with the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, hoping a new agreement without the US will be spearheaded by Australia and Japan, according to a report in The Australian Financial Review. The Fin notes the plan could be operation within as little as a year.

With Donald Trump withdrawing the US from the process, Australia and Japan are aiming to keep the 11 other nations together, signing off on a deal that could potentially allow other states to join in the future. The two nations are attempting to organise a side-meeting at the APEC summit in Vietnam to discuss the deal.

The US’s absence would make the final deal less valuable than the original proposition, shaving as much as $8 billion off Australia’s exports by 2030.

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WHAT’S ON TODAY

Around the country: The final day to return forms for the national marriage survey. At 6pm, local time, Australia Post outlets will cease collecting the forms.

Sydney: The Reserve Bank of Australia holds a rates meeting and will make a decision.

Sydney: The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union will make an offer to Streets ice-cream to decrease labour costs without forcing pay cuts or redundancies. The union is currently calling for a boycott after Streets, owned by Unilever, moved to terminate the company’s enterprise agreement.

Melbourne: The 2017 Melbourne Cup will stop the nation.

Port Moresby: Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court will rule on whether services should be restored at the Manus Island detention centre.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Turnbull’s citizenship solution may be a political lifeline to 2018 — Katharine Murphy (Guardian Australia): “On the 21-day timeframe proposed in this system, the public eligibility declarations from lower house MPs won’t actually show up in the final parliamentary sitting weeks before the end of the year.”

Why joining the Quad is not in Australia’s national interest — Geoff Raby (Australian Financial Review $): “Australia’s joining a quadrilateral group with Japan, India and the US is a bad idea, a very bad idea… It is a potentially dangerous response to China’s ascendancy and flies in the face of more than 30 years of Australian policy engagement with China.”

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

How The Australian echo chamber influences politics — Bernard Keane: “It may not have a large readership, but most journalists, editors and producers read it, ensuring its campaigns are noticed and, often, echo around the country.”

Shooting Tsars: the revolution that redefined our world (Part I) — Guy Rundle: “For better and worse, from the Cold War to Stalinism, to sputnik and the moonshot, the people’s rise in China to Wave Hill, and beyond, the 20th century was the Bolshevik century. Prior to any moral judgement on the regime that started it, it is worth, at this point, taking a step back, and assessing what it meant, and how it shaped the world we have lived in, in ways we still find it difficult to think outside of.”

The Social Contract: important amendments to modern manners — Lorin Clarke: “Please note the introduction of the following amendments to The Social Contract. These matters pertain specifically to Appendix B: When to Shut Your Face.”

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