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Second Australian senator quits over dual citizenship | Second Australian senator quits over dual citizenship |
(35 minutes later) | |
Australian Senator Larissa Waters has announced she will resign after learning she holds dual citizenship. | |
Ms Waters, from the left-wing Greens party, was born in Canada. | Ms Waters, from the left-wing Greens party, was born in Canada. |
Under Australia's constitution, a person cannot run for federal office if they hold dual or plural citizenship. | Under Australia's constitution, a person cannot run for federal office if they hold dual or plural citizenship. |
Ms Waters is the second senator since Friday to resign for having dual citizenship, following her Greens colleague, Scott Ludlam. Both were deputy leaders of the party. | |
In May, Ms Waters became the first Australian politician to breastfeed in federal parliament. | In May, Ms Waters became the first Australian politician to breastfeed in federal parliament. |
'I was unaware' | |
Ms Waters said she only discovered her citizenship status following the case of Mr Ludlam, who had recently learned he was a New Zealand national. | |
Holding back tears at a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Waters described her error as an "honest mistake". | |
"I was devastated to learn that because of 70-year-old Canadian laws I had been a dual citizen from birth, and that Canadian law changed a week after I was born and required me to have actively renounced Canadian citizenship," she said. | |
The Queensland senator, 40, was 11 months old when she left Canada with her Australian parents. | |
"All of this happened before I could even say my first word," she said. | |
However, Ms Waters, who was first elected in 2011, said she took "full responsibility". | |
According to Australia's constitution, politicians must relinquish any foreign citizenships before standing for office. |