11 MPs won’t release documents, knowing dual citizenship can never be proven
EXCLUSIVE: Eleven federal politicians eligible for dual citizenship have refused to release documents proving they renounced foreign allegiance.
NSW
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ELEVEN federal politicians eligible for dual citizenship have refused to release documents proving they renounced any foreign allegiance — protected by the fact there is no way of proving they are not Australian unless they spill the beans.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is not ruling out referring a group of Labor MPs to the High Court when Parliament returns if the suspected dual citizens continue to refuse to release any documents showing they have relinquished their foreign citizenship.
The Labor pollies who have held dual citizenship include Justine Keay, Susan Lamb, Maria Vamvakinou, Tony Zappia, David Feeney and Penny Wong.
None have released documentation to show they have renounced their dual citizenship.
It’s understood Opposition Leader Bill Shorten rescinded his British citizenship in May 2006 and received confirmation documents in the following months, but is refusing to release documents in order to protect potential dual citizen Labor MPs from having to release their evidence.
Foreign countries do not release details of citizenship held by individuals — citing confidentiality. Liberal MPs who are eligible to have held dual citizenship include South Australian Tony Pasin, whose father was born in Italy, and Julia Banks, whose father was born in Greece.
Labor has also raised questions about the citizenship of Cabinet minister Arthur Sinodinos, who yesterday insisted he had renounced his Greek citizenship. A media adviser for Luke Hartsuyker said there were no documents to prove National’s MP didn’t have Dutch citizenship as it would have lapsed when he was 28 as he made no claim to it.
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His father immigrated from The Netherlands in 1951. Ms Vamvakinou, a Victorian Labor MP, was born in Greece and moved to Australia when she was four.
Mr Feeney, whose father moved to Australia from Belfast in Northern Ireland, has also not released documents showing whether he has renounced the UK citizenship he would have been granted by descent. ALP high-profile frontbencher Penny Wong was born in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. Under Malaysian constitution, a formal application needs to be made to the country’s Interior Ministry to renounce citizenship.
Despite repeated requests from The Daily Telegraph, Ms Wong has declined to release documentation showing she has relinquished her citizenship.
“Prior to nominating for Parliament I took the steps required,” she said.
Mr Zappia is a South Australian MP born in Italy, but claims Italian law did not allow for dual citizenship and said he lost his citizenship when he became an Australian in 1958.
The Daily Telegraph first revealed Ms Keay, a Labor MP from Tasmania, was a British citizen at the time she nominated to run in the 2016 election, with confirmation her citizenship had been renounced only received after the election.
The father of Ms Lamb, the Labor MP for Longman in Queensland, was born in Scotland. Children born outside of Scotland to at least one Scottish parent were automatically considered British citizens.
Ms Lamb has repeatedly refused to release documents showing she has renounced her British citizenship.
When The Daily Telegraph first approached her on July 27, her adviser said she could not respond because she was “busy”. Since then, she has said she took all the necessary steps to renounce her UK citizenship in May 2016, but has not released documents.
Liberal MP Ms Banks released a statement from the Greek officials saying she was no longer a citizen.
However, she has not released documents showing when she wrote to authorities relinquishing her citizenship.
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