Derryn Hinch says he will ask the Senate to refer him to the high court when federal parliament resumes on Monday, following questions about his eligibility.



Speaking to reporters in Cairns, the Victorian senator suggested the referral would be his first order of business next week, even though his legal advice suggested he had no case to answer. “Yeah it will be,” Hinch said.

But while Hinch is moving to have his day in court, the Turnbull government is yet to decide whether or not to support the referral, and senior government players are looking at the proposition with some scepticism.

On Wednesday evening Hinch revealed he was seeking legal advice because he has an American social security number from his time working in New York as a journalist in the 1960s and early 70s.

Hinch said he did not believe he had accepted the rights and privileges of a foreign power by having a US social security number. He said he had never been a US citizen, or held a green card.

He flagged an intention to seek an opinion from the solicitor general, and refer himself to the court in the event he had a case to answer.

On Thursday, Hinch told reporters: “I think I will have to refer myself to the high court.”

He said he had sought advice overnight from a couple of constitutional lawyers about whether his social security number was an issue that could render him ineligible to sit in the parliament, and “they think I’m in good shape”.

Despite being advised he didn’t have a case to answer, Hinch said it was best to proceed, otherwise he might be accused of hiding something. In saying he wanted to be transparent, he also referenced a concern about wasting the high court’s time.

Asked on Thursday whether or not Hinch had a case to answer, the prime minister dead-batted. Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in western Sydney the senator needed “to get some advice on that and form his own judgment as to what he should do”.

The government is yet to determine a position on whether to refer his case to the court.

It is understood that the crossbencher will write to the attorney general, George Brandis, signalling his intentions, then Brandis will seek advice from the solicitor general.

Labor is likely to support whatever position the government takes.

If Hinch proceeds he will be the eighth parliamentarian to face the high court since the citizenship imbroglio began with the resignation of two Greens senators, Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam.

Three government ministers – Barnaby Joyce, Fiona Nash and Matt Canavan – the One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, and Nick Xenophon, the leader of the NXT, will also have their eligibility examined by the high court.

The first batch of cases will be heard in October.

Questions have also been raised this week about whether the Labor senator, Katy Gallagher, could have obtained Ecuadorian citizenship by descent, because her mother was born in the country.

Gallagher has denied she has any issue, but the Labor party is understood to be in the process of making further checks.

The constitutional law expert George Williams predicted on Wednesday that all the parliamentarians currently before the high court were in trouble.

Williams, who is the dean of law at University of New South Wales, told the National Press Club that “on the current law it is difficult to see … that any of the seven parliamentarians who will face the high court are likely to survive that challenge”.

But Turnbull shrugged off the expert warning on Thursday. “Based on the advice we have from the solicitor general, we are confident that the three ministers … will be found to be qualified to sit in the parliament”.

Turnbull said he also expected the court to validate Xenophon, and well as the government MPs. “So that’s the advice we have and we’re very confident in that position.”