China Daily (Hong Kong)

Second Aussie senator quits over dual citizenshi­p

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CANBERRA, Australia — A second Australian senator in less than a week said on Tuesday she was quitting Parliament after discoverin­g she was a dual national and had therefore never really been elected. The controvers­y has raised questions about how many other lawmakers might also have no right to be there.

Larissa Waters, co-deputy leader of the minor Greens party, said she was quitting after six years as a senator after the Canadian High Commission in Canberra told her on Monday that she was Canadian.

On Friday, the Greens’ other co-deputy, Scott Ludlam, revealed that he was a citizen of New Zealand as well as Australia, which made him ineligible for the Senate job he’s held since July 2008.

Australia’s Constituti­on states that a “citizen of a foreign power” is not eligible to be elected to Parliament.

Waters, who in May became the first lawmaker to breastfeed in Parliament, was born in the Canadian city of Winnipeg on Feb 8, 1977, to Australian parents. She moved to Australia before her first birthday.

She said she thought she had an option of becoming a Canadian citizen and did not take it. She has since found that the law changed a week after she was born, meaning she automatica­lly became a Canadian unless she took steps to prevent it.

Waters said other foreignbor­n lawmakers among the 226 in Parliament could find themselves in a similar predicamen­t. “There are many politician­s ... were born overseas and it may well be that others have to make this embarrassi­ng revelation as well,” Waters said.

“But I can hold my head up high knowing that the moment I found out, I have taken the step of announcing that I will sadly have to resign,” she said.

After Ludlam’s resignatio­n, lawmaker and former prime minister Tony Abbott posted on social media a document confirming he had renounced his own British citizenshi­p in 1993, a year before he was elected to Parliament.

Sydney University constituti­onal lawyer Anne Twomey said Canada and New Zealand were not considered foreign powers when the Australian Constituti­on came into force in 1901 because, like Australia, they were part of the British Empire. The High Court has ruled that Britain has been regarded as a foreign power under Australian law since 1986.

One or two prime ministers might have been dual nationals in the past, but lawmakers’ eligibilit­y was never tested in the courts until the 1970s, Twomey said. “Up until then, people didn’t look too closely. It’s only been in recent times when perhaps politics has become a bit more visceral ... that these issues have arisen.”

Ludlam was exposed by Australian lawyer John Cameron, who had investigat­ed whether the senator and another New Zealand-born lawmaker, Derryn Hinch, were dual nationals.

But both Ludlam and Waters could be forced to repay their salaries. Ludlam was reportedly paid more than $1.3 million during his nine years in office.

 ?? LUKAS COCH VIA REUTERS ?? Larissa Waters breastfeed­s her daughter as she speaks at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, last month.
LUKAS COCH VIA REUTERS Larissa Waters breastfeed­s her daughter as she speaks at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, last month.

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