Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg over suggestions he possesses dual citizen status because his Holocaust-survivor mother Erica was born in Hungary.

“I wish that those who make these allegations about Josh Frydenberg could think a little deeper about the history of the Holocaust,” Mr Turnbull said during a press conference on Friday afternoon.

“So, Erica Strauss came to Australia as a stateless person. She had no citizenship. She came to Australia. She became an Australian citizen and she is Josh’s mother.

“Has this witch hunt become so absurd that people are seriously claiming that Josh Frydenberg is the citizen of a country which stripped his mother and her family of their citizenship and would have pushed them into the gas chambers had it not been that the war was ended before they had time to do so?”

It comes after Mr Frydenberg said on Friday his mother was upset his citizenship status has been questioned as it reopens a dark chapter of her family’s history.

There was speculation Mr Frydenberg could be a dual national after a report in The Australian newspaper on Friday said there was a “50 per cent likelihood” he was Hungarian because his Jewish mother Erica was born in Budapest.

Mr Frydenburg dismissed the claims as “absurd” during a press conference on Friday morning.

“My mother came to Australia from war-torn Europe after the Holocaust, post war, and was deemed to be a stateless person,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“It is completely absurd to think that retrospectively, and against her will, she could be made to be a Hungarian citizen and that would flow through to me without any positive act either by her or by me.”

Mr Frydenberg told Sky News he had spoken to his mother Erica, who arrived in Australia in 1950 at the age of seven after fleeing Hungary with her parents during the Holocaust.

“I spoke to my mum last night. I spoke to my mum this morning and as you can understand, she hates the idea of this history being brought up again,” he said.

“Just like it is for other parents of other children who have come to Australia in similar circumstances, they don’t want to relive that past and for good reason.

“I don’t think there was any malice in this issue being raised but I think it is now very clear that in my case I am an Australian and an Australian only and I have to say it’s all become a bit ludicrous now where you’ve got all these claims and counter claims about a whole series of people.”

The cabinet minister said he had made his own enquiries “months ago” and discovered, “there needs to be a formal interview process as well as providing formal documentation before somebody can be considered for Hungarian citizenship”.

No case for government audit

Mr Frydenberg shot down the idea of a government audit into the citizenship status of MPs, arguing it was a responsibility for the individual.

“I think its up to all MPs to make their own enquiries and to take responsiblity for their own situation,” he told Sky.

“As for where it goes from here I’d leave that to the Prime Minister but you have to understand that when a lot of people came to Australia or their parents and grandparents came to australia, they did so with minimum documentation and that only in the archives back in the host countries could there be information that may shed light on individual circumstances.”

The call for an audit comes after Senate President Stephen Parry resigned this week for being a British dual citizen, following the disqualification of five federal MPs from Parliament due to dual citizenship, including deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.

But Federal MPs calling for an audit are ignoring the fact that the Australian Electoral Commission has no legal power to do so, Special Minister of State Scott Ryan said.

Senator Ryan said on Friday the AEC has no legal authority to conduct an audit.

“They are constrained by the Electoral Act – they can’t knock out nominees when they nominate for election on these grounds and they can’t conduct an audit of members of parliament,” he said.

The AEC put a statement on its website confirming the minister’s view.

– with AAP