Citizenship saga: More than 12 Liberal and Labor MPs refuse to release nationality documents
TREASURER Scott Morrison says Australians have had a gutful of ‘Salem witch trials on citizenship’ as Josh Frydenberg dismissed as ‘absurd’ reports he is a dual citizen, declaring his family were stateless when they arrived from Hungary after World War II.
NSW
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- Senator Stephen Parry reveals he is British
- Citizenship audit of Parliament will create own set of problems
TREASURER Scott Morrison says Australians have had a gutful of ‘Salem witch trials on citizenship’ as cabinet colleague Josh Frydenberg dismissed as ‘absurd’ reports he is a dual citizen, declaring his family were stateless when they arrived from Hungary after World War II.
“The way that these allegations have been set against Minister Frydenberg I think just highlights the hysteria which has now gripped some of the ways that these matters have been dealt with,” Mr Morrson said in Melbourne.
“If individual members have issues, then they can raise them, but, you know, we’re not getting into these Salem witch trials on citizenship through the media.”
The federal energy minister is the latest senior government figure facing questions over his citizenship, after Senate President Stephen Parry this week bowed out of parliament over his British links.
“When my mother and her sisters and her parents entered Australia after the war their status was ‘stateless’,” Mr Frydenberg told AAP on Friday. “It is absurd to think that I could involuntarily acquire citizenship of a foreign country from a stateless mother and grandparents.” Hungary has rules that automatically confer citizenship by descent, following a bid to address the plight of stateless Jews who fled the Holocaust.
Mr Frydenberg’s mother was born in Hungary in 1943 and arrived in Australia with her parents when she was seven after spending time in a refugee camp. He said it was neither rational nor humane that Hungary could purport to make his mother a citizen against her will after rendering her stateless. Mr Frydenberg said given his family background, he would be required to initiate and undertake a lengthy and formal application and interview procedure in order to be considered a Hungarian citizen.
“Neither I nor anyone on my behalf has ever made such an application or engaged in such a procedure.” Dual citizenship would make him ineligible to be in parliament and threaten the Turnbull government’s slim majority.
It comes as calls mount for a full-scale audit of federal parliamentarians are mounting as more than a dozen Labor and Liberal politicians refuse to release documents proving they are eligible to be elected.
Liberal MP Kevin Andrews and Nationals MP Llew O’Brien are the latest Coalition backbenchers to back an audit, while Liberal Ian Macdonald and Labor’s Alex Gallacher say they are open to a citizenship check for all parliamentarians.
Victorian Liberals heavyweight Michael Kroger also expressed his support for the move.
The latest citizenship crisis was sparked by the revelation that Senate president Stephen Parry was a dual British citizen, which he announced after the High Court booted five other parliamentarians over their dual national status.
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Communications Minister Mitch Fifield last night confirmed that he was the senior Cabinet minister to whom Mr Parry expressed his concerns about potentially being a dual citizenship before the Tasmanian Senator eventually came clean to the public.
“Former Senator Parry mentioned to me a few weeks ago that he was endeavouring to check his family’s records,” he said.
“The onus is on all Senators and members to satisfy themselves of their circumstances and I encouraged Senator Parry to do so.”
Mr Parry’s announcement followed by his resignation from parliament subsequently led to calls for several Labor and Liberal MPs, who were born overseas or who have foreign-born parents, to release proof they are not still dual citizens.
Former social services minister Kevin Andrews yesterday said the issue would “continue to fester politically”.
“If I was the Prime Minister I would be ordering, requesting, the (Australian Electoral Commission) for example, to immediately undertake an examination of every MP and senator and to report as soon as possible back to the government,” he said.
His colleague Llew O’Brien became the first Nationals MP to publicly back an audit, telling The Daily Telegraph: “If the people want an audit, I’m supportive of it, I don’t have a problem with the concept.”
Senator Macdonald said an audit “shouldn’t be necessary”.
“I wouldn’t oppose it, nor do I advocate it,” he said.
Liberals Craig Kelly and Eric Abetz are already pushing for an audit of all their parliamentary colleagues. But Turnbull government ministers have distanced themselves from an audit despite Barnaby Joyce claiming there were “probably” other dual citizens sitting in Parliament.
Labor MP Alex Gallacher, who was born in Scotland, said he had “the relevant documents and when the powers that be ask me to release them, I will”. “(A citizenship audit) would be clearly no problem for me, I’m not in a decision-making role in either the government or the Opposition.”
