Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten will meet on Wednesday to nut out a solution to the dual citizenship "circus", consuming the government and the 45th Parliament.

But how willing are they really?

Both sides are hedging. Turnbull's pseudo-voluntary self declaration register for all MPs cannot be called an audit, but only for political reasons. He has repeatedly scoffed at the very idea of a parliamentary audit as preposterous, unworkable, unnecessary.

Sophistry, which is never too far away in political communication, dictates that if a humiliating retreat is unavoidable, it must come under another name. Thus, Turnbull parades the register as an honour system that is both comprehensive and declarative, while being distinct from an audit, which technically would be conducted by a third party.