Dual Citizenship Crisis - s 44(i)

[Mugwump]

Any Acknowledgement of Allegiance, Obiedience or Adherence to a foreign power disqualifies you from Parliament.....but our Head of State is a foreigner!
How can this bloke lose his job, but the Queen of England doesn't?

Also to be consistent, our National Flag should immediately be changed! How can that flag represent us, when it acknowledges allegiance to a foreign power?

Pay that. I'd change the rule, not the head of state, but the point above is on the money as things stand.

[David]

Any Acknowledgement of Allegiance, Obiedience or Adherence to a foreign power disqualifies you from Parliament.....but our Head of State is a foreigner!
How can this bloke lose his job, but the Queen of England doesn't?

Also to be consistent, our National Flag should immediately be changed! How can that flag represent us, when it acknowledges allegiance to a foreign power?

Yep, well said. It's just a nonsense law and I dare say a deeply anachronistic one in a multicultural country such as ours. The idea that, say, Tony Abbott might be compromised as PM because of the fact of his birth overseas and failure to renounce all ties to it is ridiculous, and the same goes for Kenyan-born Lucy Gichuhi, Belgian-born Matthias Cormann or anyone else you could care to list. People keep dual citizenships for any number of personal reasons; the idea that it should disqualify them from serving the Australian public is absurd. If we're talking double agents, you don't need to be a citizen of another national power to work for them, and if we're talking about bias then the same principle goes.

I distinctly remember making the argument with anti-Abbott types indulging in conspiracy theories a couple of years ago that we'd be better served devoting our energy to getting the law changed instead of using it in an opportunistic bid to get rid of a politician we don't like. Maybe they'll be more inclined to that point of view now.

[stui magpie]

^

It's not just a law, it's a section of the constitution. laws can be changed by Parliament.

[think positive]

So make an amendment! damn stupid to let him go without a fight

[stui magpie]

^

Yep, Constitutional amendments are real easy to make.

[think positive]

^

Yep, Constitutional amendments are real easy to make.

the gun things an ammendment, jeff told me!!

[David]

A referendum's a hugely expensive undertaking, but package it up with a few other amendments (Indigenous recognition, if that's still on the table) and it would be worth doing. The document's over a century old; it's bound to need to be refreshed from time.

I'd also be interested to know whether the "foreign powers" section of the constitution originally applied to the Commonwealth. Surely we had British subjects serving in the early parliaments?

[think positive]

A referendum's a hugely expensive undertaking, but package it up with a few other amendments (Indigenous recognition, if that's still on the table) and it would be worth doing. The document's over a century old; it's bound to need to be refreshed from time.

I'd also be interested to know whether the "foreign powers" section of the constitution originally applied to the Commonwealth. Surely we had British subjects serving in the early parliaments?

yup exactly like the USA one, ie the 2nd amendment meant muskets, not assault rifles!

[Jezza]

Larissa Waters resigns after failing to renounce her Canadian citizenship

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/l ... le/8720066

[Wokko]

[David]

You have to be kidding! I'll admit that I don't understand how Ludlam didn't realise he could have been a New Zealand citizen, but Waters on the other hand just sounds really unlucky.

Starting to seriously wonder how many major party politicians hold dual citizenships. They must be sweating right now.

[thesoretoothsayer]

Whatever you do don't make jokes about Larissa Waters's main claim to fame.
Your posts will disappear from this thread.

[stui magpie]

A referendum's a hugely expensive undertaking, but package it up with a few other amendments (Indigenous recognition, if that's still on the table) and it would be worth doing. The document's over a century old; it's bound to need to be refreshed from time.

I'd also be interested to know whether the "foreign powers" section of the constitution originally applied to the Commonwealth. Surely we had British subjects serving in the early parliaments?

British citizens are apparently interpreted by the High Court the same way.

Sue v Hill (1999)[edit]
Main article: Sue v Hill
At the 1998 federal election, Heather Hill, a woman with dual British-Australian citizenship, was elected to the Australian Senate as a senator for Queensland. Henry Sue, a voter from Queensland, appealed to the High Court of Australia,[8] sitting in its capacity as the Court of Disputed Returns. Chief Justice Murray Gleeson ruled that the United Kingdom qualified as a "foreign power" under section 44(i), and as a British citizen Hill was therefore unable to take up her Senate seat.[9] As a result, Len Harris, the second One Nation party candidate on the ballot, was elected and took Hill's place in the Senate.

Also works for One nation and that was nearly 20 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_4 ... eign_power

You'd think after the precedents that a political party would check, when a candidate for preselection was born overseas, whether they were eligible.

[SweatyPie]

I bet she's feeling like a right 'booby' now.

booby
ˈbuːbi/
noun
1.
a stupid person.
synonyms: idiot, fool, stupid person, simpleton, moron, cretin, imbecile, ignoramus, oaf, dunce, dolt, dullard, nincompoop, duffer, jackass; More
2.
a large tropical seabird of the gannet family, with brown, black, or white plumage and brightly coloured feet.

[swoop42]

It's ridiculous that a person born to parents who were reportedly Australian citizens at the time of her birth in Canada, a country she left as a baby has to resign.

Of course how she and her colleague (or party)were unaware of the rulings in relation to this when they aspired to be senators is equally stupid.