SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday the “business of government goes on” despite a citizenship crisis that ousted his deputy and cost the government its parliamentary majority.

Australia’s High Court ruled earlier on Friday that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and four other lawmakers are ineligible to remain in parliament because they held dual citizenship at the time of the last election. [S9N1LR006]

“The decision of the court today is clearly not the outcome we were hoping for but the business of government goes on,” Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.

Turnbull confirmed that a by-election would be held in Joyce’s seat on Dec. 2.