EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: For more, I'm joined now by Liberal MP, Craig Kelly.

Craig Kelly, you can't afford to be smug anymore, you Liberals, now you've got the first one that has been ensnared by this crisis.

CRAIG KELLY, LIBERAL MP: Well Emma ...

EMMA ALBERICI: No less than the President of the Senate. Now how many others are sitting in this Parliament in violation of section 44?

CRAIG KELLY: Look Emma, I think this is probably why we need to have a full audit. The reality is the media are onto this, the media is going through checking everyone's records.

So there is virtually an informal audit being done by the media which is like a death of a thousand cuts.

I think the best way to bring this to a head, to draw a line in the sand, let's have a full audit of everyone's records, put this behind us and move on and then going forward, everyone will be crystal clear exactly what the rules are.

EMMA ALBERICI: I want to talk about what form the audit would take but first of all, shouldn't Stephen Parry have checked his citizenship status when everyone else was doing the same thing? I mean, his father was born in the UK, that wasn't a secret. It seems a bit of a no-brainer?

CRAIG KELLY: Look, that is something you would have to ask Senator Parry but as I understand it, of course, he was born in Australia. He was born in Tasmania. He said his father served in the Australian Defence Force.

EMMA ALBERICI: But he knew his father was born in the UK?

CRAIG KELLY: And I am sure, most Australians would think that if they were born in Australia, that they wouldn't have citizenship in other countries.

EMMA ALBERICI: Sure, over the course of the past several weeks, as these skittles were falling, it was fairly evident that if your parents or parent was born overseas, you might have a problem?

CRAIG KELLY: That is always the possibility and that is after we've seen the High Court decision, that is obviously now the case.

Anyone who has a citizen, a parent that's born in another country, has a risk of their citizenship status.

We know what the rules are now. The rules are very clear and that's why I think it is now time to have an audit, a formal one rather than an informal one.

EMMA ALBERICI: So who do you think is best placed to conduct such an audit?

CRAIG KELLY: Well, probably the Electoral Commission might be in the best place to do it. I think we make a lot of declarations - we have to declare all the donations we receive, anything over $300.

There is a lot of these declarations on directorship of companies and so on, we have to declare all those things on our forms.

Now, I think there's no reason why that those declaration forms that we actually make should also include our citizenship.

EMMA ALBERICI: Why are your senior colleagues so opposed to such an audit? George Brandis reiterated his opposition to it today, so does Steve Ciobo. Why don't they want this?

CRAIG KELLY: I wouldn't say, I haven't heard any of the discussions of this in the party room, where senior colleagues are actually against it.

Look, we have a constitution that is set out and our job, as members of Parliament, first and foremost is to respect and uphold that constitution.

There was some question about what the law was. The High Court had resolved that. Now, I think it is an obligation amongst every member of Parliament to make sure that we are doing everything we can, that the letter of the constitution is now upheld.

EMMA ALBERICI: Will you lobby them to see this happen?

CRAIG KELLY: Well, I think we should. I think it would be best if we get this out of the way because look, in government, we are doing a lot of good things.

We have had record jobs growth ...

EMMA ALBERICI: You wouldn't know it given the distractions.

CRAIG KELLY: There was 371,000 jobs, that is the MCG and SCG filled twice, of new job creations in the last 12 months. That is something that is getting missed because of all the discussion about the citizenship.

EMMA ALBERICI: The public is clearly on board with this, if you read the comments sections in the newspapers and follow social media, online activity and so on. What are your constituents in Hughes telling you?

CRAIG KELLY: Look, to be honest, I don't know if there's a great deal of interest in it. It is one of those sort of sideline ...

EMMA ALBERICI: They want it settled once and for all,

CRAIG KELLY: It is one of those sideline issues ...

EMMA ALBERICI: This sort of drip feed of ...

CRAIG KELLY: That is true. I think people want to say we've had this issue, we've had this discussion and it has been interesting. A lot of people are now thinking about could I possibly be a citizen of another country?

Something like half of all Australians have one parent born overseas.

EMMA ALBERICI: Before I let you go, I want to talk about Manus Island. How are you feeling as you see the images of this quiet protest of these 600 men who won't leave the detention centre?

CRAIG KELLY: Look, there's no doubt that we wish that problem would actually go away but the reality is we had a significant issue in this country with people coming to Christmas Island. We had over 1200 deaths at sea and we had to make a very tough and harsh decision that anyone that came by boat to Christmas Island would not set foot upon Australia.

EMMA ALBERICI: These are human beings, though? Using them as some kind of pawn in a political game, to send a message overseas is pretty discomforting for a lot of people?

CRAIG KELLY: I wouldn't say, we could never forget the 1200 deaths in the seas between Java and Christmas Island ...

EMMA ALBERICI: Equally, a lot of people will never forget the images of these desperate men?

CRAIG KELLY: This is an unfortunate situation that has developed over a number of years because of the weakening of our border protection. This is why we have to have strong border protection.

You have got to have the message out there that we don't want people to make that dangerous sea voyage from Java across to Christmas Island.

EMMA ALBERICI: But wasn't it, let's talk about the here and now. Wasn't it incumbent on your Government to find alternative arrangements for these people rather than leave them languishing there?

CRAIG KELLY: Well, Emma, that is what the Government has been trying to do and remember, these people were originally put on Manus Island by the Labor Party. This is another mess ...

EMMA ALBERICI: No, no but the time for blaming Labor for everything is a bit in the past now.

CRAIG KELLY: I know that Emma but this is another mess that we have inherited and we have to try and clean up.

EMMA ALBERICI: Let's again, rather than blaming others, isn't it incumbent on you as a Government to find these men a dignified place to settle?

CRAIG KELLY: That is the things that we have been working on. We have looked at resettlement in Cambodia, we've had the arrangements with the USA. We still have to keep working on this issue. There is still a lot more that can be done.

EMMA ALBERICI: You have been in Government four years.

CRAIG KELLY: Well, Emma, these are problems we cannot solve overnight. This is the problem. It is very easy for a government to come in, make a huge mess of our border protection. What the Labor Party did and expect us to fix it up.

EMMA ALBERICI: These men say they feel very unsafe roaming the streets of Manus Island. You know, we have already had three airlifted in the last month or so after being attacked by locals. Four years ago, Reza Berati died after being set upon by two locals who'd stormed the detention centre. Are you worried about what might happen next on your watch?

CRAIG KELLY: Of course, Emma. Of course, everyone in the Coalition is concerned about what is happening on Manus Island but we just can't look at that in isolation.

We have got to look at the total picture of how we're protecting our borders, how we are trying to stop the people smuggling trade.

And yes, this is a problem, we wish we could do more in this area but as I said, if you look at the big picture, unfortunately, there is no easy solutions.

EMMA ALBERICI: Craig Kelly, thank you for coming in.

CRAIG KELLY: Thanks Emma.