The reaction to the by-election in Bennelong has come thick and fast.
The opposition says the five percent swing away from the government is a win for the Labor movement.
But Liberal MPs say the by-election was a show of unity across the government.
Labor front bencher Ed Husic told the ABC the result shows the strength of the Labor party going into the next election.
"If we can get in a safe level seat this kind of swing, there'll be a lot of Liberal MPs bookmarking seek.com as their new favourite website, because they'll be looking for new work. We could potentially see a massive surge at a federal election. And the only reason that they could win is that they had a federal liberal party picking up state Liberal campaigning techniques, dusting off a 2011 playbook to attack Kristina Keneally. They had no ideas, they had no plan, no clue for what they would do in Bennalong."
But Paul Fletcher, Minister for Urban Infrastructure, says regardless of the swing against the government, the result is a major loss for Labor.
He told the ABC Bill Shorten has mishandled several recent issues in Parliament.
"He mishandled the whole issue of Sam Dastyari - he dithered over Dastyari and he didn't take action. And of course Bill Shorten has misplayed this whole citizenship issue, by assuring Australians that Labor's vetting processes are secure. What we actually know - Mr Shorten has been concealing the fact that several labour members have serious questions about dual citizenship - a number of them were British citizens at the time that they nominated."
Manager of opposition business Tony Burke conceded to the ABC the party was hoping for a better result.
"Of course we would have liked to have had - you always want to get, in every swing an extraordinary result. This was not like any other by-election. You had the incumbent contesting, and the normal argument that you can run in a by election - just send a message and it won't make any difference to what happens in the parliament - you couldn't send that. Because obviously this is the first time we've had a by-election where the outcome would mean that a government would lose its majority. So I think this by-election, when you look at it that way, was closer to a general election than you would ordinarily get. And if that is the case then in a general election we wouldn't have won Bennelong but we may well have won government."
But Liberal MP Craig Lundy came to a different conclusion.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Laundy says the campaign shows Labor is willing to lie their way into power.
"Kristina Keneally would open her mouth and say something which was an out and out lie. Like she went to a Medicare office and waited an hour, and then Minister Tudge stands up in Parliament and says the waiting times of that whole week. I think the longest one was 13 minutes. You know you've gotta be on the front foot and I think we were at this at the last election campaign. Labor are prepared to lie and cheat to get into power. We took the honourable route at the last election campaign and we didn't get down in the gutter like they did. Now we are aware of the lengths they will go to to seize power and we are armed with the facts."
So was the by-election result a referendum on the government, or perhaps evidence of the way Australians think about either major party?
Probably not.
Bennelong wasn't a normal by-election, and the demographics of the electorate are not typical of broader Australia - the result might not mean anything at all.
And with more by-elections tipped to come next year, this is not the last we've heard from the dual-citizenship saga.
