In the wake of a wave of citizenship upsets that saw politicians including Barnaby Joyce, Malcolm Roberts and Larissa Waters ousted from parliament after it was discovered that they were dual citizens at the time of their election, Malcolm Turnbull has finally decided to do something about the whole debacle.
His solution: all MPs will have to pinky promise that they’re absolutely not dual citizens.
Alright, it’s slightly more serious than a pinky promise. Current and prospective MPs will have to declare their place and date of birth, and those of their parents; that they are not currently a citizen of any other country; that at the time they were nominated, they weren’t a citizen of another country; if they’ve ever held citizenship from any other country; and if they have, details of when they renounced their dual citizenship.
If you’re thinking that this is a bit of a no-brainer, yeah, I’m with ya – but remember that despite Section 44 of the Constitution being pretty clear about dual citizens being barred from parliament, plenty of pollies managed to overlook that little speed bump. So maybe having to spell all that out will actually work to make sure we avoid another Malcolm Roberts empirical evidence nightmare.
Turnbull told reporters this afternoon:
Every member of the House and every member of the Senate has a personal obligation to ensure that they are in compliance with the Constitution to be that obligation is continuing.
If they have reason to believe that they are not, then they should say so and take the appropriate action.
He also said that the onus would be on the MP to provide proof and to perform due diligence; breaking the new rule would mean they’d find themselves in contempt of parliament, and the “political consequences would be very dramatic“.
The PM has also ruled out any chance at an audit of all current politicians, saying,
This is not an audit, there is no auditor. (An audit) would be relieving members of their responsibility. The obligation is on each member and each senator to make a full disclosure.
