Citizenship doubts: Chisholm MP not dual citizen, Liberal Party says

UPDATE: THE Liberal Party says the Greek Embassy has confirmed Chisholm MP Julia Banks is not a dual citizen.

Chisholm MP Julia Banks was born in Melbourne after her father migrated from Greece as a teenager. Picture: Kym Smith

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UPDATE: THE Liberal Party says the Greek Embassy has confirmed Chisholm MP Julia Banks is not a dual citizen.

After urgent questions were raised about Ms Banks’s eligibility to serve in Parliament, the Liberal Party asked the Greek Embassy to check their records.

In a statement, a spokesman said: “We have received confirmation from the Greek Embassy that according to records Julia Banks is not registered as a Greek citizen and also is not entitled as a Greek citizen.”

Earlier, there was great concern in the party that Ms Banks may have been ineligible to stand at the last election.

The first-term MP, who is of Greek descent and holds her seat by just 2154 votes, said she was a “true-blue” Australian and never took up Greek citizenship.

A senior Victorian source said it appeared as though proper vetting processes had not been followed prior to last year’s federal election.

If Ms Banks had have been ineligible and a by-election was called in Chisholm, it would have put the Turnbull Government’s grip on power under serious threat.

Julia Banks and Malcolm Turnbull in Box Hill. Picture: Steve Tanner

Ms Banks, who is currently overseas, was born in Melbourne after her father migrated from Greece as a teenager.

She told the Herald Sun this afternoon: “Both my parents were Australian citizens at the time of my birth.”

The Herald Sun understands that under Greek law, citizenship may have been automatically conferred on her, without her needing to register for it.

Greek Embassy says citizenship is "acquired" at birth if a person's parent is Greek. https://t.co/WzS2r23XoI

— Tom Minear (@tminear) July 28, 2017

Her office said today that they were not in a position to comment about Ms Banks’s citizenship status.

Another Liberal source said Ms Banks, who was a lawyer, should have been well aware of the legal implications of her Greek heritage.

She won the seat of Chisholm last year from retiring Labor MP Anna Burke, who had held it since 1998.

The electorate of Chisholm takes in parts of Ashwood, Blackburn South, Clayton, Forest Hill, Box Hill, Burwood, Chadstone, Huntingdale, Mont Albert, Mount Waverley, Oakleigh and Surrey Hills.

The Liberal Party holds the seat with a razor-thin margin of just 2154 votes.

The citizenship debacle has already seen two Greens resign as senators and a minister quit Cabinet.

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