Here’s a tip for Stephen Parry: don’t wait for the Brits. Quit now. The Brits might decide you’re not one of them and you can remain. But no matter what advice comes back from the Home Office, your staggering lack of judgment is indisputable.

Quite what possessed you to keep your possible dual nationality a secret is a political mystery for the ages. As senator after senator informed you they believed they had a problem with their citizenship under section 44 of the constitution, you stayed silent, apparently hoping the High Court would spare you the embarrassment of putting your hand up as well. While the entire country obsessed over foreign citizenship laws and Fiona Nash rose to explain how her British father had given her British citizenship, you pretended everything was OK. Now, just days after we thought the whole saga was over — and the government leadership thought it was over, for better or worse — you’ve restarted it.

Malcolm Turnbull can’t take a trick. It’s not enough that Tony Abbott keeps hurling bombs at him, he can’t even leave the country for an apparently risk-free foreign trip without some galoot in his own ranks blowing themselves up.

And spare a thought for the voters. How much longer do they have to endure politicians who can’t, or won’t, fill out forms properly? It’s not as if Australian voters are exactly enthralled by their elected representatives as it is.

The bloke who started all this, Scott Ludlam, at least showed how it should be done — cop it sweet and get out with your dignity intact. Parry, like his Nationals colleagues and Malcolm Roberts, failed to heed his example. A belated but immediate bail-out by Parry will at least do the right thing by the government.