Independent candidate seeks British citizenship

An independent candidate for South Australia's only marginal seat in the federal election is seeking urgent advice on her citizenship.

Former Adelaide Writers' Week director Jo Dyer, a so-called teal independent, may be a dual British-Australian citizen.

If she wins the election, she would be ineligible to take the seat of Boothby, if she wins it from the Liberal Party.

The high-profile candidate has been waiting for the British Home Office to rescind her UK citizenship.

She applied for that in December, and it is a pre-requisite to be a candidate for a federal election.

Ms Dyer told the ABC that I have advised that I am seeking urgent advice from the British Home Office about the status of my citizenship and application to renounce.

These applications have previously been processed within two months for other candidates, so I assumed it had been finalised but am seeking confirmation from the Brits.

I had thought that having taken all reasonable steps to renounce my citizenship was sufficient, but now I have sought advice on Katy Gallagher's case, accept that's inaccurate. Ms Gallagher, an ACT senator, lost her seat after the High Court ruled in 2018 that she did not renounce her British citizenship in time for the 2016 election.

She was elected to the Senate at the federal election in 2019.

Boothby — in Adelaide's inner south and south-west — has been represented by Liberal Nicolle Flint since 2016.

She held it with a 1.4 per cent margin in 2019 but announced last year she was retiring.

Liberal medical researcher Rachel Swift is hoping to replace her, while former St Vincent de Paul Society chief executive Louise Miller-Frost is standing for Labor.

Ms Dyer was friends with the woman who accused former attorney-general Christian Porter of raping her, an accusation he denies.