As the campaign for the second federal by-election forced by the citizenship saga begins, Labor has come out swinging, warning the coalition it's up for a fight to win the NSW seat of Bennelong.
The foreign citizenship saga claimed Liberal MP and member for Bennelong John Alexander on Saturday and within 24 hours Labor MP Tony Burke warned his party was ready to campaign and put up a fight to win the seat.
"If they (Liberals) won't stand up for the people of this community, if they won't stand up for the people of Bennelong, the Labor Party will," Mr Burke told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
"Malcolm Turnbull, a prime minister with no authority and a government with no majority, has failed to stand up for the people who live here."
Speaking in the Bennelong suburb of Eastwood, with Labor senators Sam Dastyari and Jenny McAllister behind him, Mr Burke announced the start of the campaign, insisting his party was strongly represented in the area, despite Liberals holding the seat by more than nine per cent.
The opposition frontbencher was quick to throw punches at the recent Liberal party scandals including the citizenship crisis, and the Liberal National Party's preference deal with One Nation in the upcoming Queensland election.
He urged the people of Eastwood to sign petitions to stop the LNP deals with One Nation.
Mr Burke said the selection process for Labor's candidate in the seat was under way.
"The process won't take an incredibly long amount of time, we don't have a long amount of time," he said.
The Labor candidate will be up against Mr Alexander who said he'll stand again for parliament in the by-election after renouncing any foreign citizenship.
The former tennis star is the second member in the House of Representatives forced to resign.
Barnaby Joyce is facing a by-election in New England on December 2, after discovering he was a New Zealand citizen, because of his father's birth.
