This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/24/dual-citizenship-barnaby-joyce-rival-tony-windsor-joins-high-court-battle-as-dates-set
The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Dual citizenship: Barnaby Joyce rival Tony Windsor joins high court battle as dates set | Dual citizenship: Barnaby Joyce rival Tony Windsor joins high court battle as dates set |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Tony Windsor, the former independent MP and rival to Barnaby Joyce, has been allowed to join the citizenship case being heard in the high court by chief justice Susan Kiefel, who has set down hearings in October. | Tony Windsor, the former independent MP and rival to Barnaby Joyce, has been allowed to join the citizenship case being heard in the high court by chief justice Susan Kiefel, who has set down hearings in October. |
| Kiefel, at a directions hearing in Brisbane on Thursday, allowed Windsor to join the case as a “contradictor” after he stood unsuccessfully against Joyce, who belatedly discovered he was a New Zealand citizen. | Kiefel, at a directions hearing in Brisbane on Thursday, allowed Windsor to join the case as a “contradictor” after he stood unsuccessfully against Joyce, who belatedly discovered he was a New Zealand citizen. |
| Kiefel agreed with the solicitor general, Stephen Donaghue, that the matter of whether up to seven federal parliamentarians who held dual citizenship were valid candidates in the 2016 election was urgent. However, proposed hearings in September were pushed back to 10-12 October in Canberra to accommodate legal teams for senators Matthew Canavan and Malcolm Roberts, who would call experts on foreign citizenship laws. | Kiefel agreed with the solicitor general, Stephen Donaghue, that the matter of whether up to seven federal parliamentarians who held dual citizenship were valid candidates in the 2016 election was urgent. However, proposed hearings in September were pushed back to 10-12 October in Canberra to accommodate legal teams for senators Matthew Canavan and Malcolm Roberts, who would call experts on foreign citizenship laws. |
| Canavan’s barrister, David Bennett, said he planned to produce evidence to show a “ridiculous” number of Australians, as much as 50% of the population, would be ineligible to run for parliament if citizenship-by-descent rules of foreign countries were held against his client. | Canavan’s barrister, David Bennett, said he planned to produce evidence to show a “ridiculous” number of Australians, as much as 50% of the population, would be ineligible to run for parliament if citizenship-by-descent rules of foreign countries were held against his client. |
| Canavan unwittingly became an Italian citizen when he was two years old because of changes to Italian laws that were constitutionally invalid, according to his expert evidence, Bennett said. | Canavan unwittingly became an Italian citizen when he was two years old because of changes to Italian laws that were constitutionally invalid, according to his expert evidence, Bennett said. |
| Donaghue, for the attorney general George Brandis, said he would argue that Senator Scott Ludlam and possibly Senator Malcolm Roberts were “different” cases to the others in that they would have known they were at one time foreign citizens, and should be disqualified. | Donaghue, for the attorney general George Brandis, said he would argue that Senator Scott Ludlam and possibly Senator Malcolm Roberts were “different” cases to the others in that they would have known they were at one time foreign citizens, and should be disqualified. |
| Ludlam, who was born in New Zealand, applied at the age of 19 to be an Australian citizen. | |
| Barrister Robert Newlinds, for Roberts, said his client did not concede that he was ever anything but an Australian citizen but that he had contacted the British home office prior to nomination to take steps to renounce any British citizenship via his Welsh father just in case. British authorities had subsequently sent Roberts a form and confirmed his renunciation after he was elected. | |
| Donaghue said he was aware of a historical document suggesting Roberts was previously a British citizen, and if that was correct, he fell into the category of a person who knew he was a foreign citizen. | |
| In that case the question with both Ludlam and Roberts was whether they took “reasonable steps” to renounce, as the high court had previously found was necessary to avoid falling foul of section 44 of the constitution. | |
| The “critical factual issue” around the steps Roberts took was “likely to be resolved on the obtaining of that document” in which he formally renounced to British authorities. | |
| Section 44 says that any person who is a “citizen of a foreign power” is “incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives”. | |
| But Donaghue said the attorney-general would argue in the case of Joyce, Canavan and probably senator Larissa Waters, that none of them knew they were foreign citizens and were not disqualified. | |
| He said the previous case of Sykes v Cleary had prompted the court to find that citizens born in Australia who had not taken “affirmative” action to seek or accept foreign citizenship should not be captured by section 44. | |
| The five cases currently before the court are Joyce, Ludlam, Canavan, Roberts and Waters. | |
| Since their referrals to the court by federal parliament, Joyce’s National party deputy Fiona Nash and senator Nick Xenophon have since declared discoveries they too are dual citizens. | |
| The court awaits their referrals next month. |