David Speers: Pollies should show us their passports
THAT senior minister Josh Frydenberg is being mentioned in the citizenship farce shows the urgency of a real review.
Opinion
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Erica Strauss was born in Hungary in the middle of World War II. Her Jewish family was interned in the Budapest Ghetto by the Hungarian fascists.
The Strauss family made it out alive, then spent time in “displaced persons” camps along with thousands of other Jews.
They arrived in Australia in 1950 when Erica was just seven years old. On arrival, each member of the family was given an immigration document stamped “stateless”.
Sixty-seven years later, Erica’s son Josh Frydenberg has made it to the senior ranks of government as the Minister for Energy and the Environment. He’s highly regarded on all sides and considered a potential future prime minister.
Are we seriously saying he can no longer sit in the Parliament because he owes some sort of allegiance to a country his mother fled during the war? How ridiculous.
Still, the High Court’s ruling is “brutally” clear. If you are a dual citizen, by whatever means, you’re out.
So here’s the bottom line — the Constitution must be either changed or upheld.
Changing the Constitution is never easy, it requires a referendum.
Dual citizens can quite happily sit in the US Congress, New Zealand and Canadian parliaments, but there would be a powerful “no” campaign against any move to allow that to happen here.
So if we’re stuck with the Constitution as written, complying with it is vital. This can’t simply be put in the too-hard basket.
There are legitimate arguments against holding a citizenship audit, such as MPs being entitled to the presumption of innocence and so on. The weakest argument against an audit is that it’s too difficult.
The Prime Minister says it would require “extensive research into foreign laws”.
He’s right, it might involve hard work, but that’s no excuse not to do it.
How is it possibly fair that a dual citizen can remain in Parliament simply because their case is complicated, when Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash have been booted out? They unwittingly inherited dual citizenship too.
So how might such an audit work in practice?
The High Court didn’t draw a distinction between straightforward and complex cases. It ruled all dual citizens are ineligible. If there are others ineligibly sitting in Parliament, they should be identified.
Only after this court ruling did Senate president Stephen Parry come clean on his own dual citizenship and resign. His decision to keep quiet in the hope the court might go another way was disgraceful. The complicity of others he confided in, such as Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, wasn’t much better.
This attempt to hide the fact he may have been wrongly sitting in Parliament making decisions and collecting a hefty salary has dealt a further blow to whatever trust voters still have in the political class. An audit would help restore that trust, draw a line under the Salem witch hunt of other potential dual citizens and ensure the Constitution is actually upheld.
So how might such an audit work in practice?
Citizenship expert Kim Rubenstein from the ANU College of Law has an elegantly simple suggestion. MPs wouldn’t have to publicly reveal family records and birth certificates, but they would have to satisfy an auditor they are eligible to sit in Parliament.
For most this will be easy. For some, this might require some digging on their part to establish they have not inherited citizenship.
The onus would be on the MP to make their case.
Some have suggested a retired judge could oversee the process. The Australian National Audit Office is probably an even better option. The auditor can then give each MP a tick or recommend their case be referred to the High Court for determination.
Stephen Parry and Mitch Fifield have tipped the scales on this question.
It would most likely need to be a voluntary audit, as the government couldn’t compel MPs to take part. Anyone who refused would obviously have to explain why and then wear the fallout.
The refusal of the major parties to contemplate an audit is a terrible look. Many in their ranks no doubt feel offended at the suggestion they should have to prove their innocence. But they are conflicted.
To sceptical voters, this looks like a protection racket.
As for Josh Frydenberg, he’s spoken to Hungarian authorities and is confident he has no dual citizenship.
After his mother fled the country, laws were changed to automatically bestow citizenship on those rendered stateless during those dark days of Fascist rule.
Yet the Hungarian Embassy website in the US clearly states “you have to appear in person” to obtain the citizenship. Neither Erica nor Josh ever did this.
Yes, it’s farcical that someone in Frydenberg’s situation could be under any sort of cloud, but this is precisely why some sort of action is necessary to give everyone clarity.
Ultimately, this comes down to a question of whether we trust our elected representatives to have done the right thing or need an audit to restore that trust.
Stephen Parry and Mitch Fifield have tipped the scales on this question. Trust is now broken.
If Malcolm Turnbull thinks this citizenship mess will just fade away, he’s badly misreading the moment.