Posted on 05/09/2018 7:07:01 PM PDT by naturalman1975
IT WAS a misleading promise repeated over and over again.
Last August, Bill Shorten gave a “rolled gold guarantee” that none of his MPs would be caught up in the dual citizenship debacle.
“We have a strict vetting process. There is no cloud over any of our people,” he said.
But Mr Shorten has been forced to eat his words after four Labor MPs were forced out of Parliament due to a High Court ruling.
The MPs came unstuck due to the Prime Minister’s requesting November that the Opposition Leader refer all politicians with questions over their status to the High Court.
Mr Shorten responded at the time: “The Labor Party has the strictest processes in place to ensure all candidates are compliant with the Constitution prior to their nomination for election. Therefore, I politely decline your offer.”
He later reiterated: “I am more than satisfied that Labor MPs (are fine) through our vetting process. I am very confident.”
He also attacked Mr Turnbull over the issue, saying the citizenship issue “goes to the legitimacy and integrity of your Government”.
Liberals Stephen Parry and John Alexander and Nationals Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash were last year caught out by dual citizenship.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
And we was able to get away with this largely because the Australian media let him for most of last year. Simply accepting his word that his party were not affected by this problem, without giving those claims proper scrutiny even after it became clear there were serious questions to be answered.
The government (a broadly conservative government, albeit one lead by such a moderate leader, Malcolm Turnbull, as Prime Minister that he himself cannot reasonably be termed conservative in any way) was not blameless in this case - but it addressed the issues with far more openness and honestness than Labor, admitting errors may have been made and addressing those last year. The Greens (a minor party but one with a lot of influence in our Senate) also behaved correctly when the issue arose and addressed it.
But Labor decided to resist, knowing it had at least five people in Parliament who were not constitutionally eligible to be there.
And yesterday, their situation finally became untenable.
If Labor had addressed this last year at the same time as the government did within the Liberal and National Parties, this would not be as big a deal as it is.
The scale of it is fairly extraordinary - we now know that eight out of the seventy six Senators - more than ten percent - were constitutionally ineligible to be elected. This included the President of the Senate.
In our House of Representatives the numbers are somewhat less dramatic, but it turned out the Deputy Prime Minister wasn't eligible to be in Parliament.
Australia's constitution (written in the late 1890s and in effect since 1901 contains the following provision (part of Section 44):
44. Any person who -
(i.) 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:...
shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.
Now, in 1901, the concept of Australian citizenship did not exist - Australians were, in common with people throughout the British Empire - British subjects. It wasn't until the 1940s that concepts of citizenship of individual citizenship of particular countries began to be enacted into law across the Empire/Commonwealth - in 1949, it became possible to be specifically a British citizen (a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), and/or specifically an Australian citizen (a citizen of the Commonwealth of Australia) although both groups still remained British subjects as well until the 1980s.
The point is until at least 1949 and quite possibly until the 1980s, there was no conflict between Section 44 and somebody holding multiple citizenships for more than one Commonwealth Realm.
And it wasn't until 1999 that the issue was even raised in a court - in that year, Heather Hill who had been elected a Senator for Queensland, was ruled ineligible to be a Senator because she held British citizenship as well as Australian.
It is actually quite easy, under certain conditions, for an Australian to hold a foreign citizenship without necessarily being aware of it, especially from another Commonwealth country. For example, if your father was a British, Canadian, or New Zealand citizen, you might also be one even if you were born in Australia as an Australian citizen and have lived here all your life. And it doesn't matter in any aspect of Australian law - except in terms of eligibility to be a Member of Parliament.
Now, in June last year, a lawyer in Perth, Western Australia, developed suspicions as to whether two Senators - Derryn Hinch (Justice Party - a very minor party), and Scott Ludlam, the co-deputy leader of the Australian Greens (technically a minor party, but one with a significant Senate presence) might be New Zealand citizens as both were born in New Zealand. So he checked. He found that Hinch had renounced his New Zealand citizenship prior to seeking office - but that Ludlam had not. Ludlam had wrongly assumed he lost New Zealand citizenship when he was naturalised as a citizen in his teens. He hadn't, he was a dual citizen, and was therefore ineligible to be a Senator. He resigned.
And things have snowballed from there. I won't go into all the details, but in brief:
Senator Larissa Waters (the other co-deputy Leader of the Greens) had to resigned when it emerged she held Canadian citizenship as she was born in Canada and had never renounced. She was also a naturalised Australian citizen.
Senator Matthew Canavan, a member of the Liberal National Party (part of the conservative coalition currently in government) resigned from the Ministry (he was Minister for Resources) but remained in Parliament pending a High Court decision, because it was possible he had - without his knowledge - acquired Italian citizenship as an adult when his mother applied for it. He was eventually cleared by the High Court as eligible and has been restored to the Ministry.
Senator Matthew Roberts, a member of the One Nation Party, a minor party, is identified as being of possible Indian citizenship as he was born in India. Investigation reveals that while he isn't an Indian citizen because he was born to a British father, and India didn't grant automatic citizenship to the children of British fathers resident in India, he was actually a British citizen and had never renounced that, although he was a naturalised Australian citizen. He did not resign but remained in Parliament pending a High Court decision, which went against him, forcing him from Parliament.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, Leader of the National Party (part of the conservative coalition) was informed he might hold New Zealand citizenship even though he was born in Australia, by descent from his New Zealand born father. He stood down as Deputy Prime Minister but remained in Parliament pending a High Court decision, which found that he was a dual citizen. He then resigned from Parliament, renounced his New Zealand citizenship, and was re-elected in a by-election (special election), and was reappointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the National Party - although he has since stood down from both those positions because of a scandal. (Note - the option to resign, renounce, and run again is available to Members of the House of Representatives, but not to Senators (if a Senator is ineligible, the person who was next in line to be elected is elected. If a Senator was eligible and resigns, a replacement is appointed by the Governor of their state, from the same party they represented - the similarities that exist between these processes and US processes are because the US constitution was used as a secondary model for part of Australia's, although the primary model was British constutional law.)
Senator Nick Xenophon, leader of the minor party named after him (the Nick Xenophon Team), was informed he held an unusual and very limited form of British citizenship (British Overseas Citizen) through his father who was born in the then-British colony of Cyprus. He had renounced any claim to Greek or Cypriot citizenship prior to standing for Parliament, but was unaware of his father's technical status. He remained in Parliament (he has since resigned) pending a High Court decision, and was cleared on the basis that his BOC status is so limited, it doesn't constitute a shared allegiance (basically it only exists in British law so that nobody can accidentally be left entirely stateless by the many changes made to British citizenship law since the 1940s - if that would otherwise happen, they still have BOC status).
Senator Fiona Nash, Deputy Leader of the National Party, is informed that she has British citizenship by descent from her father. She decides to remain in Parliament pending a High Court decision. The eventual decision goes against her and she is forced out.
Senator Stephen Parry, Liberal (the major party in the conservative coalition), and President of the Senate, reveals he has British citizenship by descent from his father, and resigned.
John Alexander, Liberal, reveals he may have British citizenship by descent (he had believed his father had renounced his British citizenship but is now checking). When it is found no evidence exists of his father's renunciation, he resigns, renounces, and reruns, being re-elected.
Senator Jackie Lambie, leader of the minor party named after her, the Jackie Lambie Network, reveals she has British citizenship by descent via her father and resigns.
Senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore of the Nick Xenophon Team, resigns after she discovers that because she was born after 1984, she acquired British citizenship by descent from her mother (prior to 1984, only the father automatically bestowed it).
For those keeping count, basically, last year seven of the seventy six Australian Senators had to resign over this issue. Two more were cleared. Two Members of the 150 Seat House of Representatives (including the Deputy Prime Minister) had to resign but were re-elected at by-elections.
Of these nine, four were members of the government (the conservative coalition), two were Greens, and three were from minor parties.
Of the nine, one might possibly be seen as having some sort of reasonable excuse for their mistake in my view - Senator Waters was born the actual week that Canadian citizenship law changed, and I can understand why a check by her as to whether she needed to formally renounce or not gave her the wrong impression. The other eight were at the very least very careless in not addressing these issues, given the 1999 decision that made it clear dual citizenship was a potential problem.
Now, we come to today's situation.
All through the period this was happening last year, the opposition, the Labor Party, was insisting that their own internal processes meant that all their MPs and Senators were eligible - that while - as I just said - all the government and minor party members mentioned above were careless and broke the rules, Labor had such rigourous procedures in place, that they were all fine. Labor has tried to spin this into a scandal that doesn't effect them. And most of the media spent last year letting them get away with that, even as increasing doubts were raised.
Today, we know that Labor was not being honest with the Australian people - while all of the above can be criticised for their failures, Labor failed in exactly the same way and has spent months trying to get away with it.
Labor Senator Katy Gallagher has British citizenship by descent. She did make an attempt to renounce it prior to running for election, but that attempt failed as she didn't provide all the necessary paperwork to the British government and she knew it had failed. Her subsequent successful renunciation came too late.
Labor MP Susan Lamb has British citizenship by descent. She left her attempt to renounce too late, and so was not eligible for election. Her subsequent successful renunciation came too late. She does have the option to validly contest a by-election.
Labor MP Justine Keay has British citizenship by descent. She left her attempt to renounce too late, and so was not eligible for election. Her subsequent successful renunciation came too late. She does have the option to validly contest a by-election.
Labor MP Josh Wilson has British citizenship by birth. He left his attempt to renounce too late, and so was not eligible for election. His subsequent successful renunciation came too late. He does have the option to validly contest a by-election.
I have some degree of sympathy for the position of these last three. They did attempt to renounce as they should and part of their problem was how long it can take the British government to recognise renunciations. But any sympathy or understanding must be tempered by the realisation that the Labor Party has spent most of the last year insisting they were perfect over this issue and resisting any attempts to properly investigate the status of their MPs and Senators.
At every turn, Labor has tried to avoid facing the consequences of this situation. And much of the media has treated this with a ridiculous amount of tolerance.
(Nick Xenophon Team MP, Rebekah Sharkie has also resigned yesterday over the same issue. She left her attempt to renounce too late, and so was not eligible for election. Her subsequent successful renunciation came too late. She does have the option to validly contest a by-election.)
Interesting. Looks like they should have faced the music at the time. Probably just a big shoulder schrugg. Now it sounds like a big thing.
"This is embarrassing. We were careless. Just like everybody else."
At this point it's more on the scale of:
"This is humiliating. We were careless, and have spent the last eight months trying to pretend we weren't, while attacking everybody else for being careless."
And by this you see why we were so upset about BO being elected to POTUS over here. Not eligible, no vetting, nothing.
Yeah, the libs saw how well it worked with the Democrats and Oboema in the US.
These people all knew they had foreign born parents. In some cases, they knew they were foreign born themselves. They should have checked their status.
The only one I regard as having any sort of reasonable excuse are former-Senator Larissa Waters. Canadian citizenship law changed the week she was born, and it looks like she did check her status under both 'old' and 'new' Canadian law, but missed that there was a period in between those two, and came away with the impression that she was entitled to Canadian citizenship only if she had expressly requested it.
Per Wikipedia:
The complete repealment of the 1947 Act in 1977 meant that only those who were born on or before 14 February 1953 were subject to the 1947 Act's retention rules. Those born between 15 February 1953 and 14 February 1977 were able to retain their Canadian citizenship without taking any actions.
Larissa Waters was born 8th February 1977. She therefore retained her Canadian citizenship. Prior to the 1977 change, she would have lost it on her 22nd birthday automatically unless she made a specific application to keep it.
The law is clear, but I do understand her mistake could have been made even by somebody who tried to check the law.
Our last President was not a natural born citizen as required by our Constitution.
We did not have anyone who would stand up for our Constitution.
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