Absurd and Fascinating Birtherism Crisis Wreaks Havoc in Australian Parliament
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Source: Slate
Aug. 29 2017 3:48 PM
Birtherism is back in the political news, this time in Australia—and unlike the nutty theories about former President Barack Obama, the accusations are based in reality and are costing politicians their jobs. In the latest and daffiest chapter in the saga, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was nominated for 2018 New Zealander of the Year.
A few weeks ago, no one would have imagined he was eligible for the award. But over the past month, several members of the Australian Parliament, including Joyce, have learned a thing or two about their citizenships, running afoul of the constitution in the process. Section 44, now the Australian Constitution’s most famous section, states that a person is ineligible to be elected to the Senate or the House if they are “under any acknowledgment 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 a citizen of a foreign power.” In other words, dual citizens may not run for office unless they renounce their transnational rights, regardless of whether they feel any allegiance to another country or are even aware of their status. “Citizen” is defined loosely, with many people entitled to the privileges of foreign nationals without actually holding the passport.
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It all started on July 14, when popular Greens party Sen. Scott Ludlam stepped down after discovering that he had always been a New Zealand citizen, having received Kiwi rights by default from being born there. He was quickly followed by fellow Greens Sen. Larissa Waters (who made headlines earlier this year for being the first to breastfeed on the Parliament floor), who realized that Canada had changed its citizenship laws since her birth there from application-based to automatic allocation, making her a Canadian and disqualifying her from the Australian Senate. The Australian Greens were derided by the government as careless and unprofessional, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull calling it “incredible sloppiness” and “extraordinary negligence.”
Yet it was only the beginning of a Section 44 purge that would begin wiping out members of Parliament by the handful. By July 25, the citizenship shoe was on the other foot. Resources Minister Matt Canavan realized his mother had applied for Italian citizenship on his behalf and resigned from the Cabinet, with the government referring the case to the High Court. There was a rush of overseas-born MPs falling over themselves to produce letters of renunciation, proof of their singular loyalty to Australia. Independent Sen. Nick Xenophon, of Cypriot heritage, teamed up with Iranian-born Labor Party Sen. Sam Dastyari to conduct a mock trilingual press conference to point out that they, as two of the Senate’s more exotic members, were not the ones getting caught out by Section 44. (“We’re feeling much more Aussie than our colleagues today,” quipped Dastyari.) Soon after, Xenophon discovered he was in fact a British citizen because Cyprus had been under British colonial rule when his father fled to Australia in 1951; Xenophon thus referred himself to the High Court.
Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/08/29/dual_citizenship_crisis_in_australia_barnaby_joyce_nominated_new_zealander.html
I wonder how Australians feel about Russian puppets holding high governmental office?
= new reply since forum marked as read
