Should Australians have to renounce their other citizenship to enter federal politics?

Citizenship

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Constitutional regulations requiring Members of Parliament to relinquish their citizenship from other countries have caused chaos in previous parliaments, and were named as an excuse for the lack of diversity in the Chamber.


Article 44 in the Constitution is estimated as inhibiting people from migrant backgrounds from being able to run for Parliament.

Thisclause was created in the 1890s and back then there was strong anti-foreigner sentiment, they did not want people withb other nationalities sitting in the Australian parliament.

Theyraised the issue that those people would probably sell our defense secrets to other countries.

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