The Turnbull government has asked the High Court to swiftly deal with the question of whether a slew of MPs and senators were validly elected, urging the case be heard in September rather than October.
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In a submission lodged with the High Court on Monday, Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue, on behalf of Attorney-General George Brandis, has admitted that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and former cabinet minister Matthew Canavan are, or were, citizens of New Zealand and Italy respectively.
The court is due to hold a directions hearing on Thursday.
As recently as Sunday, Senator Brandis had said that "we hope to get the matter before the court as soon as possible. I think realistically that may be in the first fortnight of October."
But the submission from the Solicitor-General has proposed that the cases of Mr Joyce, Senator Canavan, One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts and former Greens senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam be examined in its second sitting week, on September 13 and 14.
The submission argues there is a "compelling public interest in the references being determined as quickly as possible" given the case deals with multiple sitting MPs.
In seeking to appear at any hearings, the Attorney-General suggested affidavits be prepared which lay out "all of the relevant facts that relate to the person's citizenship", including "all documents in their possession, custody or control that relate to their citizenship status".
That would include Senator Roberts' documents, which he has often referred to possessing, but has refused to show publicly.
Wanting to move proceedings along as far as possible, the government "will submit to an order to pay the party/party costs of each of the referred persons, but reserves his position on costs in relation to any other party to the proceedings".
The expedited timetable put forward by the government would see all documents and submissions filed by September 11, with the hearings listed for the next week.
Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash and Nick Xenophon Team leader senator Nick Xenophon are, also, likely to be referred to the High Court when Parliament next sits in September and that the High Court case will likely have direct implications for this pair, too.
The federal government has been rocked by the revelations that several of its MPs are or maybe be dual nationals, which is forbidden under the constitution, and is blaming the ongoing fiasco for causing it damage in the polls.
Under section 44, part (i) of the Australian constitution, a person is disqualified from standing for Parliament if they are "under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power".
Labor has called for Mr Joyce and Senator Nash to stand aside from cabinet, as Senator Canavan has done, until the case has been dealt with.
In addition, it has suggested the Turnbull government should not bring forward controversial legislation until such time as the High Court case has been finalised.
Labor leader Bill Shorten has dismissed suggestions he might be a British citizen, describing it has "birtherism" akin to the doubts that former US president Barack Obama faced about his birth in Hawaii.
Mr Shorten has said he renounced his British citizenship in 2006, before entering Parliament, saying it was a "crazy conspiracy" for the government to attempt to reverse the onus of proof for MPs, so they had to prove they were not a dual citizen.
