Joyce told the parliament on Monday morning that he had been informed by the New Zealand High Commission that he was a New Zealand citizen last week.



"Last Thursday afternoon the New Zealand High Commission contacted me to advise that on the basis of preliminary advice from their department of internal affairs, which had receiving inquiries from the New Zealand Labour party, they considered that I may be be a citizen by descent from New Zealand," he said.

"Needless to say I was shocked. I've always been an Australian citizen, born in Tamworth. Just as my mother and my great grandmother was born there 100 years earlier. Neither I, nor my parents, have ever had any reason to believe that I was a citizen of any other country."

Joyce was first elected as a senator of Queensland in 2004, before moving to the lower house as the MP for New England in 2013.

He told the parliament the government had received legal advice that he was in the clear, but has referred himself to be on the safe side.

