Australian Deputy Prime Minister ruled ineligible to sit in parliament by High Court

[bilby]

Five federal MPs, including deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, have been ruled ineligible to sit in the Australian parliament, on the basis that their foreign citizenships are in breach of Section 44 of the Constitution.

The four senators involved will be replaced by the next candidate on their party's list from the last election; The two Greens senators already stood aside when the issue came to light, but National Party Deputy leader Senator Fiona Nash, and One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts, along with Mr Joyce, attempted to argue that they were not ineligible, on the grounds that they were unaware of their foreign citizenship - an argument that was not accepted by the court.

Mr Joyce's seat in the House of Representatives will need to be filled via a by-election in his former seat of New England. It is not yet clear what effect this ruling might have on legislation proposed, supported or passed with the assistance of Mr Joyce since he first entered parliament as a Senator in 2004, and in particular legislation he supported after the case was referred to the High Court - Mr Joyce refused to stand aside during the hearings, despite opposition claims that his ineligibility might lead to the status of legislation passed with his support being questioned, should the court rule against him (as it now has).

It seems unlikely that Johnny Depp's dogs, Pistol and Boo, will take action against Mr Joyce, who was instrumental in their 2015 deportation from Australia.

Two other senators, Nick Xenophon and Matt Canavan were ruled to be eligible to sit, despite allegations of their foreign citizenship status under s.44.

The ruling eliminates the Coalition's one seat majority in the House of Representatives.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/10/27/high-court-decides-only-two-citizenship-seven-safe

 

[gmbteach]

Five federal MPs, including deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, have been ruled ineligible to sit in the Australian parliament, on the basis that their foreign citizenships are in breach of Section 44 of the Constitution.

The four senators involved will be replaced by the next candidate on their party's list from the last election; The two Greens senators already stood aside when the issue came to light, but National Party Deputy leader Senator Fiona Nash, and One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts, along with Mr Joyce, attempted to argue that they were not ineligible, on the grounds that they were unaware of their foreign citizenship - an argument that was not accepted by the court.

Mr Joyce's seat in the House of Representatives will need to be filled via a by-election in his former seat of New England. It is not yet clear what effect this ruling might have on legislation proposed, supported or passed with the assistance of Mr Joyce since he first entered parliament as a Senator in 2004, and in particular legislation he supported after the case was referred to the High Court - Mr Joyce refused to stand aside during the hearings, despite opposition claims that his ineligibility might lead to the status of legislation passed with his support being questioned, should the court rule against him (as it now has).

It seems unlikely that Johnny Depp's dogs, Pistol and Boo, will take action against Mr Joyce, who was instrumental in their 2015 deportation from Australia.

Two other senators, Nick Xenophon and Matt Canavan were ruled to be eligible to sit, despite allegations of their foreign citizenship status under s.44.

The ruling eliminates the Coalition's one seat majority in the House of Representatives.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/10/27/high-court-decides-only-two-citizenship-seven-safe

Woohoo!

 

[DBT]

Good Riddance to an Arrogant Bunch of AH's.

 

[barbos]

They were unaware they were aliens?

 

[bilby]

They were unaware they were aliens?

So they claimed. The rest of us had our suspicions, particularly when they kept insisting on a methane atmosphere in the party room. But that's the National party for you.

 

[LordKiran]

Haa! Get fucked.

 

[bilby]

More than 100 ministerial decisions may be at risk from legal challenge.

 

[fromderinside]

Geez. ...and I thought the US was messed up.

 

[DBT]

It is. So is Japan, China, Greece, Turkey, Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Germany, Poland....including any nation, state, city, town or village that happens to come to mind. Vision and Good management seems to be in short supply....plenty of talking heads/big mouth/professional politicians though. The world is overrun with that breed of animal.

 

[bilby]

It gets worse - or better, for those of us rolling on the floor laughing - Now two notoriously anti-immigration, personality cultist senators, Jacqui Lambie, eponymous leader of the Jacqui Lambie Network, and Pauline Hanson, eponymous leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, are being accused of unlawfully holding dual citzenship (Lambie's father was born in Scotland, and Hanson's parents were from the UK and Ireland).

There are questions being asked about a number of other government senators and representatives, including the President of the Senate, Steven Parry, who has resigned after admitting his British citizenship after the High Court ruling was handed down.

There's a real possibility that the Prime Minister might be forced to call a snap election before Christmas - an election that his coalition would almost certainly lose. If he doesn't, then it is quite possible that he will be left without a workable majority in the House of Representatives, and will be forced into an early election on the opposition's terms.

Right now, the Government are in crisis talks with the opposition regarding an audit of the citizenships of all parliamentarians; If that goes ahead, I reckon we can expect to see quite a few more Senators and Representatives disqualified or forced to resign.

This has been brewing for decades - when I was more deeply involved in politics back in the 1990s, it was quietly discussed that the ALP might try to 'out' a number of suspected Liberal and National party dual-citizens sitting in federal parliament in breach of s44, but at that time there was some concern that some of our own party members could be caught up in the scandal. So far, the ALP seems to have been immune, perhaps because of their tighter vetting processes for candidates standing for federal office.

That the latest senators caught up in this debacle are rabidly anti-immigrant, hyper nationalist types is just about the funniest thing ever.

 

[repoman]

Maybe they didn't give up their second nationality because they planned to get a lot of money from favors and then retire overseas.

 

[bilby]

The recount of the Senate votes from the last election has been completed, and the AEC has announced the four senators who will replace those ruled ineligible.

The Queensland senate seat formerly occupied by Malcolm Roberts will go to Fraser Anning of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party. Mr Anning received a grand total of 19 (yes, nineteen, that's not a typo) first preference votes at the election, coming third on the One Nation ticket; But preference flows (mostly from Pauline Hanson herself) under the byzantine rules for counting senate ballots, mean that he is nevertheless going to sit in parliament.

Such are the strange outcomes of the Australian electoral system.

 

[RavenSky]

Things things are not checked before your elections? Don't the candidates have to file some sort of paperwork to run for office?

 

[bilby]

Things things are not checked before your elections? Don't the candidates have to file some sort of paperwork to run for office?

The electoral commission do some checks of candidate eligibility, but holding of dual citizenship has never been a part of that screening, largely because it is very difficult to do.

Most of the screening is done by the political parties, who are keen to catch each other in a mistake, and equally keen not be caught out themselves.

It's a certainty that parties will be even more diligent in future; but if a candidate says they are not a dual citizen, it's not a simple matter to demonstrate that they are wrong. And it's even harder to show that they are lying.

 

[DBT]

Not sure about this, just off the cuff, but I wonder if there may be some quirky requirement about formally renouncing citizenship of your country of origin even though you have taken Australian citizenship, which I tend to assume automatically revokes your prior status as a foreign national....unless you formally apply for dual citizenship.

If that's the case, those taking the Australian citizenship ceremony may reasonably assume that they are now Australian citizens and their prior status no longer applies, only to learn that they were wrong.

 

[bilby]

Not sure about this, just off the cuff, but I wonder if there may be some quirky requirement about formally renouncing citizenship of your country of origin even though you have taken Australian citizenship, which I tend to assume automatically revokes your prior status as a foreign national....unless you formally apply for dual citizenship.

If that's the case, those taking the Australian citizenship ceremony may reasonably assume that they are now Australian citizens and their prior status no longer applies, only to learn that they were wrong.

Obtaining Australian citizenship is not sufficient to eliminate other citizenships; I became an Australian citizen in 1996, but my British citizenship was not affected in any way, and I hold passports from both countries. There's no application for dual citizenship required.

If I were to stand for federal parliament, I would first need to complete the renunciation process for my British citizenship, which is a simple matter of completing an application form, submitting it, and receiving a confirmatory certificate. You have to show that you have, or are about to be granted, citizenship of another country, as the UK has an international treaty obligation not to create stateless persons by withdrawing anybody's only citizenship.

https://www.gov.uk/renounce-british-nationality

Some countries automatically recind citizenship if one of their nationals obtains citizenship elsewhere; others will not allow renounciation at all - and in the latter case, the High Court has ruled that a record of a request that was denied or rejected is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of s44 of the constitution.

To fall afoul of s44, it is necessary to have had a reasonable grounds to suspect foreign citizenship might exist (for example because you have a parent who was a foreign national, or because your place of birth was overseas), but to have either failed to confirm that one does not have it, or failed to make a reasonable attempt to renounce it.

 

[bilby]

The recount of the Senate votes from the last election has been completed, and the AEC has announced the four senators who will replace those ruled ineligible.

The Queensland senate seat formerly occupied by Malcolm Roberts will go to Fraser Anning of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party. Mr Anning received a grand total of 19 (yes, nineteen, that's not a typo) first preference votes at the election, coming third on the One Nation ticket; But preference flows (mostly from Pauline Hanson herself) under the byzantine rules for counting senate ballots, mean that he is nevertheless going to sit in parliament.

Such are the strange outcomes of the Australian electoral system.

...and now he has quit (or possibly been sacked from, it's not clear yet) the One Nation Party, as soon as he was sworn in.

So the man who got in on just 19 personal votes, plus preferences flowing to him due to being on the One Nation Party list on the senate ballot, is now an independent senator for Queensland.

You wouldn't read about it.

 

[RavenSky]

The recount of the Senate votes from the last election has been completed, and the AEC has announced the four senators who will replace those ruled ineligible.

The Queensland senate seat formerly occupied by Malcolm Roberts will go to Fraser Anning of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party. Mr Anning received a grand total of 19 (yes, nineteen, that's not a typo) first preference votes at the election, coming third on the One Nation ticket; But preference flows (mostly from Pauline Hanson herself) under the byzantine rules for counting senate ballots, mean that he is nevertheless going to sit in parliament.

Such are the strange outcomes of the Australian electoral system.

...and now he has quit (or possibly been sacked from, it's not clear yet) the One Nation Party, as soon as he was sworn in.

So the man who got in on just 19 personal votes, plus preferences flowing to him due to being on the One Nation Party list on the senate ballot, is now an independent senator for Queensland.

You wouldn't read about it.

wait, what? Who has been sacked or resigned? Fraser Anning?

 

[bilby]

...and now he has quit (or possibly been sacked from, it's not clear yet) the One Nation Party, as soon as he was sworn in.

So the man who got in on just 19 personal votes, plus preferences flowing to him due to being on the One Nation Party list on the senate ballot, is now an independent senator for Queensland.

You wouldn't read about it.

wait, what? Who has been sacked or resigned? Fraser Anning?

Yes; Apparently he has quit the One Nation Party. Which was the only thing that got him elected in the first place.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/one-nation-down-a-senator-after-fraser-anning-quits-an-hour-after-being-sworn-in-20171113-gzk1ck.html

 

[bilby]

It appears that the Government have reached a deal with the Opposition, under the terms of which all current Representatives and Senators will have until December 1 to register their date of, place of, and nationality at birth, the nationalities of their parents and grandparents, details of their naturalization as Australian citizens if not citizens at birth, and the steps they have taken to renounce any dual citizenships. Newly elected parliamentarians will have 21 days from their swearing-in to register their details.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/government-strikes-deal-with-labor-designed-to-end-citizenship-crisis-20171113-gzk0il.html