Citizenship skeletons in closet
THE deathly silence and sudden infestation of blue and red tumbleweeds that followed two Greens senators’ resignation over dual citizenship has finally been explained.
So uncharacteristically meek in the face of those tree-lickin’ Bolsheviks’ monumental screw-up, it was like Labor and the Coalition had choked on their tongues.
There was none of the habitual chest-beating or fire and brimstone condemnation of senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam or the party machine that overlooked their birth ties to another country.
Then Senator Matt Canavan popped up with a peculiar claim that his mum had signed him on for Italian citizenship without his knowledge or his ever setting foot in the bootshaped nation and a vow to go all the way to the High Court to keep his job.
Well, pluck a duck, it turns out things are a bit iffy for a whole bunch of other pollies too – and not just in the Senate.
Rosie Lewis from The Australian had the exhilarating task of trawling through MPs’ backgrounds for hints of anyone engaging in clandestine pledges of allegiance to Transnistrian President Vadim Krasnoselsky.
She identified 21 members of the House of Representatives – not the Senate, keep in mind – who have spoken about their migrant heritage. They include Deputy Premier Barnaby Joyce, who took over Canavan’s Northern Australia Cabinet portfolio.
If any one of those MPs’ mums covertly enrolled them for a second citizenship or they forgot their country of birth then it would likely trigger a byelection. That would be an infinitely more costly exercise than parachuting in the next candidate on the winning party’s Senate ticket.
It could also prompt a colossal migraine for the Turnbull Government, which holds only a one-seat majority and could be toppled back into Opposition by an unfavourable by-election. It gets even more interesting. Just have a go at well-documented admirer of immigrants Pauline Hanson, who has called the media’s inquiries about One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts’ citizenship issues a “witch hunt”.
The politician was born in India to a Welsh father and Australian mother, both of whom held British passports.
A spokesman for Sen Roberts last year reportedly claimed he had only ever held one passport and the senator (for now, at least) has since signed a statutory declaration stating: “I can confirm I am not a citizen of The United Kingdom, nor am I a citizen of India. I am a citizen of Australia only.” But that is neither here nor there. It now appears Sen Roberts was not so certain about his passport status and wrote three emails to the British consulate asking if he was a British citizen prior to the election, but received no response.
So he wrote more emails, allegedly stating: “I believe I am not a British citizen, and just in case though if I am I renounce it effective immediately.”
He said formal confirmation that he had renounced his citizenship came on December 5, four months after the election.
So here we have another politician teetering on the brink.
Roberts’ former One Nation colleague, self-professed “senator in exile” Rod Culleton is loving all the drama.
He was ousted because he had a criminal conviction recorded against him at the time of his election, even though it was later overturned.
Mr Culleton took to Twitter to point out that the High Court precedent of his criminal record’s annulment not being retrospective would “be a problem for Malcolm Roberts who was a Brit at the election”.
Labor is not without questions either, with only three of its foreignborn MPs so far providing proof they have taken reasonable steps to renounce their dual citizenship.
Labor frontbencher Jim Chalmers has pressed the Coalition to reveal whether a cloud hangs over any more members – a bit rich when the ALP has largely refused to do the same.
However this goes, it just shows how poorly managed the preselection screening process has been.
Even if no more citizenship questions rear up, taxpayers will be forced to fund a hugely expensive High Court process because the proper checks and balances were not taken.
It is a bizarre and unnecessary situation and voters are right to be mad.