New laws to strip Australian citizenship from dual nationals deemed to be terrorists have been passed in Australia's parliament. These laws proposed by the Coalition Government were passed in the House of Representatives and the Senate with Opposition Labour's support. The Government apparently agreed to make about 30 changes recommended by a cross-party committee. But there are still questions about whether the laws will stand up to a challenge in the High Court on a number of fronts.
These laws are being called the Allegiance to Australia laws.
Under them, citizenship would be cancelled if a person engages in terrorist conduct, an extension of a current law covering people fighting with a foreign military against Australia.
Citizenship could also be cancelled if a person is convicted of a terrorist offence. And the Government will attempt to apply the laws to people already convicted of sentences of 10 years or more over the past decade, aiming at those currently in Australian jails.
The chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, MP Dan Tehan, explains.
"If you are carrying out conduct overseas, then the conduct provisions will come into play. If you are here in Australia, then you would need a conviction, and a serious conviction, to lose your citizenship."
Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said that the bill addressed very serious threats to Australia's national security.
"The fact is that we have foreign fighters, people who have left our shores. Whilst we're stopping a number of those on a regular basis from departing our shores, there are some that have departed and will want to return, and we need to deal with that threat. So we're not talking about rendering people stateless, but, if people have been involved in terrorism, then there is a consequence to pay for their own conduct."
Constitutional expert Kim Rubenstein (ROO-ben-steen) says many of the problematic aspects of the original bill have been improved. But she says the fundamental issue of whether parliament would have the power to strip dual nationals of their citizenship is untested.
"So until someone is, effectively, stripped of their citizenship under this bill, we are not clear as to whether this will hold up before the High Court. And the changes that have been made really don't go to those core issues of the parliament's power to strip someone of their citizenship in this terminology of 'allegiance'."
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