The Federal Parliament citizenship scandal has left voters stunned, but most have condemned it as farcical, saying it has descended into a silly political game, a joke that has gone on for far too long.
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Fairfax Media spoke to people from a range of backgrounds in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy on Sunday and most couldn't believe that so many of our federal politicians would not know their own citizenship status.
But most thought the current rule that politicians should not hold dual citizenship was unfair, and should be changed.
New Zealand-born Mr Conolly, 42, who has lived in Australia for 11 years but is not a citizen, said dual citizenship should make no difference, as long as the politician's heart was in the right place.
"Just because their fathers were born in New Zealand or British Cyprus, doesn't make them any less Australian," he said.
Mr Conolly, whose partner Patsy Mullen, 41, was born in Australia to an Irish father, and Scottish mother, believes that "everyone knows when they're growing up where their parents are from", and have often travelled or even lived overseas.
But it was also "such a farcical thing that this is taking up so much political time."
"They should be getting on and leading the country", he said.
Michael White, 30, of Sydney, who has grandparents from England and Austria, doesn't have a problem with dual citizen politicians, who he thinks should be allowed to "get on with the job".
"I think they need to stop wasting time and worry about what's going on in the country, rather than about themselves."
Pasha Ivanov, 40, who came to Australia from Russia 15 years ago and has been a citizen for seven years, said the dual citizenship revelations had descended to a silly political game.
However politicians should be allowed to have dual citizenship, with so many people coming from immigrant backgrounds, "but they should also follow the law. It's a very easy thing to check, and they should have checked".
Natalie Mohnacheff, 57, from Frankston, who was born in Australia to a Scottish mother but adopted by Russian immigrants, said the politicians' citizenship crisis has made her curious about her own status.
"There must be a hell of a lot of us who are dual citizens, and we don't know about it, and we had no idea," she said.
Ms Mohnacheff said it's a "security breach" that politicians were allowed to hold dual citizenship in office.
"These people should have been double, tripled checked."
She said politicians should never hold dual citizenship, for the country's security.
"You don't want someone sitting on the fence, on both sides, I think that's wrong," she said.
"You can't have it both ways."
