Liberal candidate Kate Ashmor facing claims of dual citizenship

The Liberal candidate for a critical Melbourne seat faces questions over her eligibility to sit in parliament amid concerns she may be a dual Israeli citizen.

The Liberal candidate for a critical Melbourne seat faces questions over her eligibility to sit in parliament amid concerns she may be a dual Israeli citizen.

Kate Ashmor, who is running in the marginal seat of Macnamara, has a father who was born in Israel.

The Liberal Party is adamant that Ms Ashmor is not a dual citizen and says she renounced any rights she had to her Israeli citizenship prior to the election.

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The party slammed the claims as a “pathetic attempt” by Labor to distract attention away from one of its candidates who has been accused of being a dual Fijian citizen.

Ms Ashmor received a letter from the Israeli embassy prior to the election campaign confirming she was “not registered on the Israeli population registry”.

However, other MPs who have sought to clarify their citizenship status from Israel in recent years have received letters stating they were not citizens.

Labor is understood to believe Ms Ashmor faces serious eligibility questions but have not raised it out of concerns driving down the Liberal vote in the bayside seat would deliver it to the Greens.

Kate Ashmor, who is running in the marginal seat of Macnamara, has a father who was born in Israel.

The ALP hold the seat on a slim 1.2 per cent margin and it is shaping to be a tight three-way contest between the Labor, Liberals and the Greens.

Under Israeli law, a person with a parent who was a born citizen of Israel is automatically given dual citizenship at birth.

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Australian National University citizenship law expert Kim Rubenstein said the case would depend on whether Ms Ashmor’s father ever renounced his Israeli citizenship prior to her birth, as well as her attempt to renounce prior to the election.

“If Ms Ashmor’s father was an Israeli citizen by birth in Israel, and continued to be at the time of her birth (ie if he had not renounced it before her birth), then Israel’s citizenship law automatically bestows Israeli citizenship on Ms Ashmor,” she said.

“This means she would need to have renounced her Israeli citizenship before she nominated to run for the seat of Macnamara to satisfy the current interpretation provided by the High Court around section 44(1) of the Constitution.”

The Coalition has repeatedly refused to confirm whether Ms Ashmor’s father was an Israeli citizen when she was born.

The dual citizenship crisis which wreaked havoc on the last parliament now threatens to derail the next term.

The Coalition has said it is ­prepared to challenge the ­result in the Victorian seat of Deakin should it be won by Labor, arguing the ALP candidate Shireen Morris is a dual citizen.

A Liberal Party spokesman said: “The fact is that unlike Shireen Morris, Kate Ashmor took her constitutional obligations seriously, applied to the Israeli Government for confirmation of her citizenship status, and received confirmation that she is not a citizen.”

Fiji’s Immigration Department tonight confirmed Ms Morris was not a Fijian citizen, saying she has never registered under the current laws.

@Gallo_Ways