One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts gives amazing evidence in High Court over dual citizenship
MALCOLM Roberts faced the High Court today over his citizenship and things quickly got out of hand.
ONE Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has claimed he believed he was “stateless” and demonstrated his appalling understanding of email in an extraordinary turn on the stand in the High Court.
The Queensland senator is being cross-examined by government lawyers over his dual citizenship, which federal politicians are barred from holding under the Australian constitution.
Senator Roberts told the court on Thursday he was still not clear on which citizenships he had held in the past, despite his lawyer Robert Newlinds accepting he was a British citizen by descent, and evidence he was also a citizen of India.
“I’m still not clear of my citizenship in the past,” Senator Roberts told the court.
“I haven’t read the expert report, but in all my dealings with the British government, it is still not clear that I have had citizenship.”
Senator Roberts was born to an Australian mother and Welsh father in India in 1955, and has previously claimed he believed he had never held any citizenships other than Australian.
The court heard an expert in Indian law found Senator Roberts would have been an Indian citizen by birth but lost his citizenship after becoming an Australian citizen at 19.
“I’ve only ever thought I was Australian until I heard it in court this morning,” he said.
Under cross-examination, Mr Roberts said he had asked his sister — who was “always more accurate on these things” — about his citizenship history, asking what they were.
“She said, ‘stateless’,” he said.
Senator Roberts said he believed he was Australian because that’s the way his family treated him, and that he travelled on his mother’s Australian passport when he was a child.
Mr Roberts told the court: “It would have been my firm belief at that time that I did not have citizenship of another country.”
Senator Roberts comments came after the court heard he had sent an email renouncing his British citizenship to two incorrect email addresses in May, before being nominated as a Senator.
Senator Roberts has previously stated he sent two emails to the British consulate on May 1 and June 6, 2016 to renounce his British citizenship.
But the court was told on Thursday that some of the email addresses those messages were sent to were invalid, with one decommissioned in 2010 and the other simply incorrect.
A third email address used for the second message, however, was valid and correct.
The court heard Senator Roberts found the email addresses “from his research on the internet”.
When asked where he found the addresses, Senator Roberts told the court he wasn’t sure, but offered: “We usually use Google.”
One of the addresses, described as “clearly flawed” by government lawyer Stephen Lloyd, ended in “sydney.uk”, the court heard. Mr Lloyd said the first email Mr Roberts had sent had a subject heading along the lines of “am I still a British citizen?”.
Neither of the emails received replies.
Senator Roberts is one of eight MPs from across the political spectrum recently caught out by the constitutional rule barring federal politicians from holding dual citizenship.
He is expected to be questioned by government lawyers about his knowledge and “state of mind” in relation to his UK citizenship.
Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue QC has previously said the Commonwealth would argue for the senator’s disqualification, if crucial documents were found to be dated after his nomination in June 2016.
Senator Roberts’ cross-examination continues.
— with AAP