Lawyer demands apology from PM over ‘absurd’ handling of citizenship debate

ONE of the country’s top legal minds demands Prime Minister apologise to him as citizenship debate gets ‘absurd’.

PM Tony Abbott holding a press conference with MP's and Senators on the Governments releasing its White Paper on Developing Northern Australia: Our North, Our Future. in Parliament House in Canberra. pic by Kym Smith

THE national security expert who first suggested Australian terrorists be stripped of their citizenship is demanding an apology from Tony Abbott.

Former national security law watchdog Bret Walker SC said the Prime Minister’s interpretation of his recommendations had been “absurd”, and came after Mr Abbott told Parliament that the top lawyer had “changed his mind”.

Last year Mr Walker recommended that the government consider giving the Immigration Minister the power to strip dual nationals of their Australian citizenship where “it is in Australia’s national security or counterterrorism interests”.

He thought existing powers should be extended to allow this, and this involves a person being convicted in a criminal trial first.

But the government seized on Mr Walker’s recommendation to support its plan to give the minister the power to strip citizenship without the need for a criminal trial.

Mr Walker said Thursday it was “absurd” to suggest he meant the existing power should require a conviction but the extension should not, as Mr Abbott had done.

“Surely the Prime Minister doesn’t think that because I didn’t mention it, it didn’t apply,” he said.

“How ridiculous. His position is indefensible and he should apologise.”

Barrister Bret Walker SC says Mr Abbott’s handling of the citizenship issue is “absurd”.

Meanwhile Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is under increasing pressure over his party’s for bringing Australian terrorists home.

According to the Daily Telegraph, a senior group of Labor MPs were outraged that Mr Shorten had not publicily reprimanded shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus for his comments that he wanted to bring those with duel citizenship back to Australia.

They were also angry that Mr Shorten had not distanced the party from Mr Dreyfus’s comments, saying it had caused “irreparable damange” to the party.

Mr Dreyfus yesterday said Australian jihadists fighter for Islamic State overseas needed to be convicted in a court before they could be stripped of their citizenship, echoing the position of Mr Walker.

Mr Dreyfus said giving Immigration Minister Peter Dutton the power to strip a dual citizen of Australian citizenship without a trial was an unacceptable amount of power to rest with one minister.

“We don’t want to see a ministerial whim, as I’ve called it, we think there should be a conviction,” Mr Dreyfus said.