According to various reports, a cabinet meeting on Monday night turned House of Cards levels of heated when six cabinet members vehemently opposed Immigration Minister Peter Dutton‘s proposal – which was backed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott – to give the immigration minister power to strip Aussies who “betray our country” of their citizenship.
There were actually two proposals put forth: the first would give the minister leave to yoink the Australian citizenship of any dual nationals suspected of ‘terrorism’ and the second would give him the power to strip the Australian citizenship of those suspected of ‘terrorism’ who only hold one passport (Australian).
Of course, if someone is not a dual national, by removing their Australian citizenship (without them having been charged OR going to court) they would effectively be rendered ‘stateless’ and in violation of international law.
The cabinet ministers who allegedly had no problem with the first – meaning, it has already been accepted and announced – but spoke out about the second were:
- Defence Minister Kevin Andrews
- Foreign Affairs Minister and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop
- Attorney-General George Brandis
- Agricultural Minister and deputy Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce
- Education Minister Christopher Pyne
- Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull
The ‘catch’ is that anyone solely holding an Australian passport whom the immigration minister decides needs to fuck off, must apparently need to be eligible to apply for citizenship in another country; although, as Julie Bishop pointed out, would another country really accept a new citizen that had just had their Australian citizenship revoked?
Newly appointed Special Envoy for Citizenship and Community Engagement Philip Ruddock (former Attorney-General and former Immigration Minister) has clarified that yes, another country would be forced to accept a citizen.
“My understanding is that another country would under due law be expected to accept back their nationals and if they didn’t have Australian citizenship,” he told ABC radio this morning. “They’d be obliged to take them.” (Listen to the full interview HERE.)
Part of Ruddock’s new role in the anti-terrorism brigade is to review eligibility for citizenship. “We’re a tolerant nation that accepts people of different races, different cultures, different religions” – yup – “but we bind them together as Australians, and citizenship is the glue if you like.”
The whole circumnavigation of the courts thing was also a point of contention, with Barnaby Joyce quoted as saying: “Isn’t that what we have courts for?”, while Senator Brandis apparently said: “I am the Attorney-General. It is my job to stand for the rule of law.” (FYI: these aren’t “quotes” exactly, they were published in SMH after they were allegedly said at the cabinet meeting, according to a source who was present.)
Apparently, the law and court system is deemed as inefficient in dealing with terrorism, hence the proposal. “Terrorism, and proving somebody is guilty of terrorist offences, which is inherently reliant on intelligence information is very different to what occurs in relation to other breaches of the law,” said Ruddock.
We’re changing the law so dual national terrorists can be stripped of their Australian citizenship pic.twitter.com/ZmZmvKvODE
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) May 26, 2015
That same source said that certain members of the cabinet (we would put money on the cabinet members listed above) were angry that the “discussion paper” was not circulated in advance, as is the usual process.
The suggestion was also made that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull questioned Abbott at the meeting on whether he had briefed The Daily Telegraph in advance, effectively leaking the discussions. (This is a common, albeit shady, way of sharing the PM’s moves in advance of cabinet meetings).
Abbott said no, but the following morning a story appeared on page five of the Daily Telly outlining what went down at that very meeting.
Brandis said in a statement after the fact: “We are not going to [be] rendering anyone stateless, nobody has proposed that, everything we do will be compliant with the rule of law.”
Meanwhile, Peter Dutton, our minister for immigration and border protection had this to say:
If people seek to do harm to Australia and seek to be involved in terrorism there needs to be consequences.
— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) May 26, 2015
Further discussion has now been deferred by Abbott – to be continued, after community consultation, at a later date.
via SMH, The Monthly.
Image: Stefan Postles via Getty Images (November 6, 2014)
