Citizenship dealt blow with ruling
WHEN Prime Minister Kevin Rudd launched Closing the Gap in 2008, he can hardly have imagined that by 2020 so much of the gap would still need closing.
But that gap – representing serious indigenous disadvantages in terms of health, education, and welfare outcomes – remains a thorn in the side of every federal government.
And now Scott Morrison has recommitted to redouble efforts to ensure all Australians – both indigenous and non-indigenous – enjoy similar standards of living in this country.
But the goal of forging a national community of citizens who all enjoy equal rights under the law has been blindsided by a High Court ruling that rights do not go with citizenship after all.
Two men born overseas, who were never Australian citizens, and who committed violent crimes, claimed the government could not deport them because they were not aliens. Each claimed that their Aboriginal ancestry gave them special rights because of their connection to the land of Australia, exempting them from deportation under the law.
Only one of the men persuaded the court of his ancestry, but that was enough.
A majority of the justices ruled that the key factor was Aboriginal connection to the land, not citizenship.
Non-citizens who commit violent crimes in Australia are liable to be deported as aliens.
For most of us, that makes sense. We want the government to protect us from violent criminals.
And most of us also think that a non-citizen who commits such a crime forfeits any right to live in this country and mix in our community.
That’s why crims who are citizens go to jail.
But the High Court has driven a coach and horses through the reasonable expectations of all right-thinking