Double trouble: Freo independent’s dual citizenship threatens to derail bid for federal seat

The wheels of Kate Hulett’s community independent juggernaut are in danger of falling off with the revelation that she has just one week to sort out her dual passport woes before the close of nominations for the upcoming federal election.

Hulett was born in Australia and inherited her British citizenship through her mother.

Kate Hulett (right) and Emma Pegrum on the Piece of Kate podcast.

But unless her British citizenship is officially revoked before the closing day of nominations for the election — April 10 — Hulett will be precluded by section 44 of the Australian constitution from running for the lower house seat of Fremantle.

Hulett made the announcement that her bid to replicate her performance in almost unseating state Labor minister Simone McGurk in the federal sphere was in deep trouble on her recently launched podcast.

“As soon as I realised what [my dual citizenship] meant for my campaign I raced home, completed the application, paid the exorbitant fee and assumed that would be that,” Hulett said.

“Then the email from the Home Office came back saying that it may take up to six months to receive official confirmation.

“I’ve spoken to constitutional lawyers in Australia and in the UK, I’ve written to UK MPs. I’ve written not one, not two, but three letters to the Home Office in the last week to clarify the point that this is democracy at stake.

“I’ve spoken to the British High Commission in Canberra and called the Home Office in the UK I don’t know how many times. I have taken every step I can to renounce my British citizenship before nominations close.”

If Hulett is forced out of the race it will disappoint her legion of supporters, who believe she has the momentum, message and charisma to challenge longtime Labor incumbent Josh Wilson.

Wilson sits on a margin of 16.9 per cent, but in March Hulett almost managed to topple WA MP McGurk, who had finished the previous state election with a lead of 28 per cent.

Hulett tapped into Fremantle voters’ anger over Labor dropping a new multi-storey police station into one of the port city’s historic precincts, the many shuttered shops and neglected cityscape, and embraced social media to push her campaign.

She managed in just two months to whip up excitement about her teal-adjacent vision for an independent voice, a concern for climate change, and a passion for transparency.

Hulett’s state campaign drew media attention because of the closeness of the final poll, prompting her to go toe-to-toe with Wilson, the assistant energy minister who will be contesting his fourth election.

“I’m doing this from pure determination for a better outcome for our community, and I do not expect that some silly paperwork nonsense is going to stop me getting to election day and absolutely nailing the brief,” Hulett said in her podcast.

Ironically, Hulett’s passport issue is the same problem Wilson faced in 2018, when he was forced to step down, triggering a by-election, which he won.

At the time Wilson, like Hulett, claimed he had taken reasonable steps to relinquish his foreign citizenship.

“Both my parents were born in Australia. My great-great-grandfather came to Fremantle as a convict in the 1860s. I have never lived in the UK, and have only visited there twice, in 1998 and 2012, for a few weeks each time,” Wilson said at the time.

Wilson was one of fifteen lower and upper house members of the Federal parliament who were caught up in what has come to be called “the parliamentary eligibility crisis”.

The High Court ordered senators to be replaced by candidates from the same ticket at the 2016 elections while the members of the House or Representatives were forced to recontest their seats at by-elections.

Political commentators such as Notre Dame’s Martin Drum believe the federal seat of Fremantle is too big and contains too many suburban areas for Hulett to repeat her state election performance and challenge the popular Wilson.

Wilson’s refusal to toe the Labor line on AUKUS has also won him brownie points with Hulett’s base and that of Greens candidate Amy Warne.

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