OPINION

THE 45th Parliament of Australia is close to losing its authenticity as a representative body and it could soon be time to shut it down and start again.

The citizenship bungles by sitting members and senators have repopulated both houses with new MPs or recycled old ones and added an unprecedented blight of uncertainty.

It is time to halt proceedings until we know who’s staying and who’s going. Otherwise any decisions by Parliament will be open to formal and informal challenge, and have their legitimacy questioned.

The House of Representatives and the Senate have been churned in an unprecedented manner since the July 2 election last year. And the hunt for citizenship scalps is corrosive.

“This reflects the delightfully feral state of Australian politics at the moment,” said an unimpressed Labor MP Ed Husic on Sky News today.

And it is likely there is more instability and political skirmishing ahead as members cast their citizenship status and electoral fates to the High Court winds.

The High Court early next year could be occupied by a brace of MPs referred to it to have their citizenship status clarified. That would create dislocation as members wait in limbo.

And it could be followed by at least one and perhaps as many as seven by-elections, an obvious source of substantial disruption to government and uncertainty in policy direction.

The intended function of Parliament itself would be seriously impaired.

The cleanest route could be to suspend Parliament until any special elections are concluded.

Wiping the slate completely with an early general election would be a drastic step.

But delaying Parliament beyond its scheduled February 5 return until all citizenship matters are settled could be necessary for the authority of the place.

The potential chaos can be measured by the shambles already endured.

The 76-seat Senate has only a vague resemblance to the chamber elected in the 2016 double dissolution.

Nine elected senators have left because they were not qualified candidates under the Constitution, and that could become 10 should Labor’s Katy Gallagher have to go.

In addition, Nick Xenophon, Stephen Conroy and Chris Back left voluntarily.

That means when the Senate returns in February around 17 per cent of senators taking their seats were not the top choices of voters just 20 months previously.

In the House of Representatives the by-election tally could soar, adding to those already called in New England and Bennelong. And that could mean further redrafting of the House of Representatives balance as decided in 2016.

For example, if Labor’s David Feeney is forced to recontest his Victorian seat of Batman the Greens could be well placed to bump him out of Parliament.

The disruption is the fault of no one but the MPs involved. And it is their duty to ensure ordinary voters do not have to pay the price for it through a dysfunctional parliament.