Dutton wants referendum on giving politicians ability to deport dual citizens

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is considering an election pledge to hold a referendum next term on deporting criminal dual nationals as part of the Coalition’s plan to toughen the requirements for Australian citizenship.

As former prime minister Tony Abbott calls for a stricter citizenship test, Dutton and his senior MPs have held high-level talks about changing the Constitution to allow ministers to cancel the citizenship of people guilty of crimes such as terrorism, in what would be the second referendum in as many terms of parliament.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in Melbourne on Monday.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

A special vote would be required to get around a 2022 High Court ruling that found the ministerial power to strip citizenship was unconstitutional because it was a form of “punishment in the sense of retribution”.

That decision was made after a man who joined Islamic State applied to the court claiming it was unlawful to revoke his citizenship, an argument with which the court agreed because it said powers to strip citizenship involved ministers exercising a function that should be left for judges.

A similar court decision in 2023 allowed terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika to remain in Australia after the High Court struck down Coalition-era powers.

Australian law already allows a dual citizen to be deported under a judge’s ruling if they have been sentenced to more than three years and have committed crimes such as terrorism or treason that “repudiated their allegiance to Australia”, and are being kicked out for a purpose other than punishment, such as community safety.

Dutton said publicly at a Future South Australia event last month that the nation should be “mature enough” for a debate about changing the constitution to beef up cancellation powers as antisemitic and anti-Muslim attacks have risen in the past year.

This masthead has confirmed with four senior Coalition sources, unauthorised to speak to media, that Dutton sees a referendum as a serious prospect if he wins the election and cannot find a legislative fix to a problem upon which the crime-focused former policeman places importance.

A decision has not yet been made on whether Dutton will announce plans for a referendum during the May election campaign. Top Coalition figures believe Labor would find it politically difficult to do anything but support, or remain neutral, on the referendum question of deporting dangerous criminals, although it could be opposed by those who see it as overreach.

A deportation referendum would echo a 2015 proposal from then prime minister Abbott, reportedly supported at the time by Dutton, to strip Australian terrorists of citizenship even if they were not dual citizens.

The idea split the cabinet, according to a report in this masthead at the time, and was opposed by moderate Liberal ministers who believed the decision was the role of the court.

“How big is this problem, and are you proposing such a fundamental change to how we are governed for what is a tiny problem, if it is a problem at all?” asked former senior Immigration Department official Abul Rizvi, a frequent critic of Coalition home affairs policies.

Few referendums have passed in Australia and only with bipartisan support. Albanese lost considerable political capital backing the Voice to parliament referendum in 2023, which Dutton opposed. Cost is another prohibitive factor given the Voice referendum cost $450 million.

Conservative parties in the UK, Canada and other Western nations are increasingly calling out what they describe as the limits of multiculturalism. Dutton last month suggested a western Sydney nurse who made antisemitic remarks online should be deported.

Abbott told this masthead Australia’s citizenship test was “way too simple” compared to the UK’s, adding: “A citizenship that’s too readily given away is one that’s insufficiently valued – not by the migrants who receive it, I suspect – but by the officialdom that confers it.”

Tony Abbott, pictured in London last month, says Australia’s citizenship test is “way too simple” compared to the UK’s.Credit: AP

The prospect of a referendum on a contentious issue may not satisfy a section of the opposition party room seeking more practical reform ideas, particularly to spur economic growth. Coalition MPs insist they have several big policies to announce during the campaign.

Dutton’s personal approval ratings have fallen in a series of polls that have coincided with stories about his bank share purchases and property portfolio and his attendance at a lavish Sydney fundraiser days before a cyclone hit his home state.

Albanese attended a fundraiser on the same day as Dutton.

This masthead reported last month the Coalition had effectively ruled out income tax cuts heading into the election, prompting a rebuke from the Institute of Public Affairs. Dutton on Monday suggested tax cuts would be inflationary while refusing to rule them out.

The opposition leader said the Albanese government had resorted to “personally slandering me because they don’t have a good story to tell themselves” before a March 25 budget that will test Labor’s economic credentials.

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