Wednesday, August 30

World

This Week In Australian Politics

About a month ago, I noted that two Australian politicians had been found after years in parliament to have never been eligible for election because our constitution forbids anyone holding dual citizenship with another country from becoming a federal representative or senator.

The number is now seven confirmed instances and at least another eight possible cases - including the Deputy Prime Minister and the Senate opposition leader.  Labor (the opposition party right now) are sitting on documentation of citizenship status after originally promising to release it, so there are almost certainly more shoes set to drop in coming weeks.

All of which means, basically, nothing, because no-one cares about Australian politics, least of all Australians.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:17 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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1 Heck, if we can't stop ineligible people from holding Federal office here in the US, what hope do you have? What, I was talking about Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, which was clearly unconstitutional.

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, August 30 2017 11:56 PM (ECH2/)

2 Can you imagine the fuss if someone read over the US Constitution and realised that Mike Pence, Chuck Schumer, and a dozen other senior elected officials were all ineligible for their positions?

Here it's just...  Meh.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, August 31 2017 01:28 AM (PiXy!)

3 Is there a punishment for this?  Is there a way to actually remove them from office, or prevent them from running in the next election?

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, August 31 2017 05:45 AM (ECH2/)

4 It's gone to the High Court (equivalent of the Supreme Court).  The statutory remedy is removal from office and a fine of £100.  Which shows how little attention has been paid to this rule, as Australia has been on decimal currency since 1966.

Many of those involved were born in Australia, but have dual citizenship according to the laws of another country - which may not even have a procedure for renouncing citizenship.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, August 31 2017 12:19 PM (PiXy!)

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Apple pies are delicious. But never mind apple pies. What colour is a green orange?




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