‘Stateless, alien mum’ adds to MP’s plight
AUSTRALIA: Cabinet minister Josh Frydenberg says it is ‘‘absurd’’ to suggest he holds dual citizenship, as his Budapest-born mother was stateless when she arrived in Australia in 1950 as a migrant, aged 7.
It has emerged the environment and energy minister may hold Hungarian citizenship by descent. Frydenberg is trying to clarify his citizenship status.
The Hungarian embassy in Washington says that under current law, ‘‘the child of every Hungarian citizen becomes a Hungarian citizen by birth (whether the mother or the father is a [or both are] Hungarian citizen[s])’’.
But Frydenberg says he is not entitled to dual citizenship because his mother and grandparents were stateless when they arrived in Australia. He has produced documents from the national archives showing their landing details.
There are also questions about whether his mother can be classified as a Hungarian citizen at all due to a law Hungary passed in 1939 declaring Jews as aliens.
Frydenberg’s mother, born in 1943, became an Australian citizen in 1957, and Frydenberg has never sought Hungarian citizenship.
‘‘When my mother and her sisters and her parents entered Australia after the war their status was stateless,’’ he said.
‘‘It is absurd to think that I could involuntarily acquire citizenship of a foreign country from a stateless mother and grandparents.’’
Frydenberg spoke of his maternal grandparents Sam and Ethel Strauss in his maiden speech to Parliament in 2010.
‘‘Sam and Ethel Strauss, and their young daughters, including my mother, were interned in the Budapest ghetto by the Hungarian fascists,’’ he said.
‘‘They survived and eventually made their way through displaced persons camps to Australia.’’
National archives documents show his mother Erica Strauss was born in Budapest but registered upon landing in Australia on December 30, 1950 as ‘‘stateless’’.
Jayne Persian, historian and author of Beautiful Balts: From Displaced Persons to New Australians, said Frydenberg was right to say he was not a dual citizen.
‘‘Writing ‘stateless’ under nationality in the post-war era was an act of renunciation. So was applying for UN protection and resettlement,’’ she said on Twitter.
‘‘If your displaced grandparents voluntarily relinquish their citizenship, become stateless according to UN, you are not Hungarian. End of,’’ Persian tweeted.
The Australian newspaper reported Frydenberg was seeking advice about his citizenship status.
But Frydenberg said yesterday he was ‘‘very comfortable’’ with his position.
‘‘I did seek some advice and obviously I’m very comfortable with that advice. I have also contacted the embassy here and I was very comforted by my conversations with them.’’
He said an extensive appli- cation process was required to become a Hungarian citizen, which he had never undertaken.
‘‘This is an issue that I looked into myself and, like all my other colleagues, have satisfied myself that my circumstances as being an Australian citizen and an Australian citizen only have been fulfilled.’’
Under section 44 of the constitution, any MP who 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 stand for Parliament.
Last week, the High Court booted five MPs, including then deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, from Parliament after finding them in breach of the constitution.
This week, former Liberal Senate president Stephen Parry quit Parliament, revealing he is a British-Australian citizen. He has not explained why he waited until after the High Court finding, despite confiding his fears to his Senate colleague Mitch Fifield more than a fortnight ago.
The ongoing saga has prompted calls for an audit, which both the Coalition and Labor Party are resisting.
However, support for an audit within the government is growing, with backbencher Craig Kelly and former cabinet ministers Eric Abetz and Kevin Andrews backing the idea.
Abetz said: ‘‘I believe an audit or something of that nature ought to be undertaken.’’ – Fairfax