High Court must get us out of it
MP CITIZENSHIP FIASCO
THE High Court has made an ass of itself by placing its own interpretation on clause 42(a) of the Constitution. As Turnbull says, only the High Court can rule on clause 44 of the Constitution and it has put us in a mess. It is up to the High Court to get us out.
At least six Australians have lost their jobs without good reason and, whatever you may think of their politics, they were doing what they were elected for, conscientiously. It should not have happened in a multicultural society, composed of so many immigrants. Canavan and Xenophon escaped for various reasons. Dual-citizenship provisions do not exist in all state parliaments. The commander-in-chief of the armed forces is not even required to be an Australian, and being a dual citizen is fine for the governorgeneral and state governors.
Anyone reading the Constitution quickly realises it is a law of the UK Parliament and written by it for its benefit. The “home country” implicit in clause 44(i) is the UK and colonies, not Australia. Similarly with many other provisions, including the right for the Queen (meaning the UK Parliament) to veto Australian legislation.
When Australian citizenship was invented, all Australians automatically became citizens of a “foreign country” and therefore unable to be members of Parliament, but we ignored that. The clause should have become null and void, just like many other obsolete clauses in the Constitution. Instead, two decades ago, the High Court chose to reinterpret it with a new meaning.
The solution is easy in one sense, but difficult for the High Court judges to stomach. They should immediately reconvene and decide that it has erred and reverse all parliamentary disqualifications. At the same time, the court should state that clause 44(i) is now void, just as is that of the Queen’s veto, thus clearing the way for the Commonwealth Parliament to enact a multi-partisan amendment to the Electoral Act providing for all nominees for Federal Parliament to provide proof that they are Australian citizens.
Double standard
I SYMPATHISE with Josh Frydenberg having his citizenship credentials questioned. However, he is part of a Government that is turning a blind eye to the 600 men on Manus Island. They are living in fear as they are forced out of the detention centre to live in a community that does not want them. I urge Mr Frydenberg to argue for compassionate treatment for these men. Support them to settle in a third country or bring them here to get their lives back on track.
Get a lawyer
THE disgraceful spectacle of Josh Frydenberg invoking the sacred Holocaust to prevent him from losing his seat will go down in infamy. His mother was declared a noncitizen of Hungary because the Government was under Nazi occupation at the time. Of course, the situation was reversed after the war. Funny how these pollies drop their mothers in it when the going gets tough. Our people have suffered enough without the opportunistic trampling of our past to gain unfair advantage. A new way to have your say themercury.com.au readers have a new way to have their say. It’s free to use, just register and have your say. For more details and to register, visit the website. After Turnbull’s last disaster in the High Court, I suggest Frydenberg gets a proper lawyer.
One rule for them
JOSH Frydenberg, helped by Liberal colleagues, is playing the sympathy card about the circumstances of his family leaving Hungary. Unfortunately for him, the law is the law. Compare the feigned outrage about the “inhumanity” of the allegation that he may be a dual citizen with the circumstances of the Nauru and Manus Island refugees. They too are fleeing war and genocide in their countries of birth and ancestry. Look what we do to them.
The Government and its members should understand that the Constitution is crystal clear. The documents that candidates are required to sign off on in respect of s44 are in simple English and it is black letter law. For any candidates having difficulties with them, the Australian Electoral Commission is happy to explain. These people are presuming to make laws for us, but they either cannot understand or comply with simple rules themselves.
As for Stephen Parry, no one should have a shred of sympathy for him, or any of the others. They have known of the possibilities all along and have never been validly elected. They have no entitlement to parliamentary pensions and perks, or taxpayer contributions to their superannuation, much less the inflated wages they have been paid. Try getting away with this with Centrelink or the Australian Taxation Office and see how far you get.
None so blind
PETER Dutton speaks the truth when he says he doesn’t want to see incidents on Manus Island. It is a great shame that he has managed to do it for so long. He has made every effort to keep us uninformed and misinformed of the horror. There are none so blind as those who don’t want to see.
Vote 1 Aborigines
THE way this citizenship-by-descent is evolving, the only citizens eligible to stand for this country’s Parliament are indigenous Australians. As a migrant country, it is inevitable that everyone else has some form of dual citizenship.
Short of a length
WE have five reasonable cricketers in our men’s state team. All we have to do now is find six others and a coach to assist.
Queen’s English
WITH the citizenship saga, what happens with a person born from sperm or egg donation, or a surrogate parent, or is adopted? Why all the attention on British descent when England didn’t want our ancestors and sent them out on convict ships. The Queen is head of our country and the last I heard she was British.