BARNABY WHO?
Posted on 08/13/2017 10:29:15 PM PDT by naturalman1975
The office of NZ Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne has told ABC News that as far as the NZ Government is concerned, Barnaby Joyce is a New Zealand citizen.
Mr Dunne's office says that under NZ law, a child born to a NZ citizen is automatically given Kiwi citizenship.
It does not have to be activated or registered.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
Under Section 44.i of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia any person who is Is under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power is ineligible to be a Member of the Australian Parliament (whether a Member of the House of Representatives or Senate), and is therefore also ineligible to be a Minister in an Australian government as Ministers must be drawn from the Parliament.
This requirement has been tripping up quite a few people in recent weeks - people who were apparently unaware that they held dual citizenship with another country (because of Australia's history, being part of a British Empire, that became the Commonwealth, citizenship law is somewhat confused at times especially when it comes to citizens of other Commonwealth countries where Australians shared dual status as British subjects until the 1980s).
So far:
Senator Scott Ludlam, Deputy Leader of the Greens, had to resign because he was unaware of the fact that he did not automatically extinguish his New Zealand citizenship acquired at birth by becoming an Australian citizen, but instead acquired dual citizenship. His mistake is honestly baffling.
Senator Larissa Waters, Deputy Leader of the Greens (their party structure has two Deputy Leaders) had to resign because she had mistakenly believed that despite being born in Canada, she had to apply for Canadian citizenship for it be active. Her mistake is somewhat more understandable than Ludlam's because at one stage Canadian citizenship law did work that way, and the law changed a week after she was born and casual investigation could lead to her misunderstanding.
Senator Matthew Canavan of the Nationals has stepped down as a Minister because he may be an Italian citizen somehow having acquired it when his mother applied for Italian citizenship. He remains in Parliament for the moment, having asked the High Court to rule on his status - his basic defence is that he was made an Italian citizen as an adult without ever applying for it himself or knowing it had been applied for. I would say he has a decent chance of the High Court ruling in his favour if he in fact made no application himself but its based entirely on a peculiarity of Italian law.
Senator Malcolm Roberts of One Nation is currently refusing to resign, despite being born in India to a Welsh father. He is almost certainly a dual British citizen and precedent makes it hard to see how he can survive a High Court challenge.
And now we have the Deputy Prime Minister who despite being born in Australia to a long line of Australian farmers through his mother, does have a New Zealand born father and apparently that is enough under New Zealand law to make him a New Zealand citizen. If he challenges this in the High Court, I expect the challenge will be based on the fine difference between being entitled to New Zealand citizenship and actually being a New Zealand citizen. It will be interesting to see what the High Court says in such a case.
The problem is if mere entitlement to foreign citizenship makes somebody a dual citizen, a huge number of Australians will be British, New Zealand, or Canadian dual citizens despite having been born in Australia and never having taken steps to assert any foreign citizenship, and the laws of foreign nations will be declaring Australians to owe allegiance to them. A lesser but still significant number may be dual citizens of other countries.
Australia generally allows dual citizenship - eligibility to sit in Parliament is pretty much the only case where an Australian can't be a dual citizen. And especially when it comes to British and Commonwealth nations citizenship, they were interchangeable until the mid 1980s, meaning almost anybody over about 30 may have a citizenship they don't know about!
In the US federal gov’t there are thousands of dual citizens holding top security clearances. We even have politicians who have worn the uniform of foreign armies.
BARNABY WHO?
Yes and about 10 years ago NZ confirmed that a child of a foreigner born in NZ is not a NZ citizen...
They had had a lot of Pacific Islanders from the Cook Islands, Fiji etc having babies in NZ to get the status so the parents could stay and to receive welfare bennies etc (doesn’t that sound like the illegal aliens in the US ???) but a new policy put an end to that nonsense...
See it can be done...
It's my understanding that in most circumstances the same is true under US law.There's one exception I've read of to that rule.It's also my understating that the same is true under Canadian law...having seen a discussion of Ted Cruz's eligibility to be President given that,having been born in Canada (to US citizen parents),he was considered a citizen by Canada.
One would think that he could officially renounce his NZ citizenship as Boris Johnson renounced his US citizenship (he was born here) and thus solve the problem.
If he is ineligible to sit in Parliament, he must resign. He could then renounce and recontest his own seat (and in his case, I suspect that wouldn’t be a major problem as there doesn’t seem to be any question of fraud or even undue carelessness).
Technically the government could try and recover all of the salary he’s earned as an unentitled MP - in practice, this has not been done in the past in cases where it is accepted that an honest mistake was made.
The High Court may rule in his favour in this case. In which case he’ll just continue to sit.
The position in the past was held that somebody in his position was entitled to New Zealand citizenship, but did not actually hold it. Apparently, at least as far as the New Zealand government is concerned, that’s now changed, but so far nobody has explained when or why it changed.
I'm somewhat familiar with this general subject for several reasons...one being that under Irish law I am automatically entitled to Irish citizenship *if* I provide Irish officials with certified copies of several birth and marriage certificates.I haven't done so and,therefore,am not considered a citizen whereas my younger sister has and,as a result,has both a US and Irish passport.
Under US law if you're born on US territory (including Puerto Rico,the US Virgin Islands and Guam) you're automatically a US citizen from the moment of birth regardless of the "particulars" of your parents.IIRC the same is pretty much true for Canada (the US and Canada being the only "civilized" countries that still recognize that concept).That's why both the US and Canada see "childbirth tourism"...foreign women (often Chinese,it's written) coming to either country and having a baby which,in the US at least,opens up all sorts of cool options for mother *and* child.
It seems funny that NZ's position on such a matter should change without,presumably,some sort of legislation having been enacted to explain the change.I wonder if this guy could challenge the ruling in NZ and/or Australian courts.
I can see the problem. Imagine the constitutional crisis if this Joyce fellow turned out to be a crypto-fan of the All Blacks. The world order would be overturned.
That could be possible, yes.
As I understand it, New Zealand actually has some sort of public register that can be checked to see if you are a citizen. If Joyce is not on that register and he can show it was checked in the past (which I believe it should have been because the major parties have had a policy since the late 1990s of checking eligibility on this issue because nobody likes losing an MP to an avoidable mistake), my guess is the High Court here would take the view that he took all reasonable steps to renounce (which is what they have said in the past is actually required - some countries, don't let you renounce, so you are only obliged to do what you reasonably can).
Ted Cruz’s mother was a citizen when he was born in Canada, but his father did not become a US citizen until much later.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.