The cavalcade of identity confusion continues in the federal parliament with Labor backbencher Justine Keay announcing today she would refer her case to the High Court. Despite taking steps to renounce her British citizenship prior to nominating, the Tasmanian MP was a British citizen on the date of the election.
In the ugly partisan to and fro bargaining between the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader over what is to be done to bring this crisis of confidence in the parliament to an end, what is being offered from both sides is little more than a protection racket for those of their number who are still hiding under rocks.
Apparently the answer, rather like a good shampoo and conditioner, is to rinse and repeat.
For the many Australians who have not seriously considered a run at the federal parliament, it will be instructive to learn that the nomination form issued by the Australian Electoral Commission for all candidates to the federal parliament features a word-for-word reproduction of Section 44 of the Australian Constitution.
Full column here.
Boadicea – I saw your 4.24am Nov 11 brief “nightmarish” comment and was wondering how does the current ignominious political kerfuffle rate against AH’s “Psycho”?
I think the topic de jure unfortunately has its genesis in actions, seemingly initiated by a semi-retired ‘advocate’, that have now significantly disturbed the natural order of how politics has so successfully and continuously worked in our nation (allowing for a blemish here and there) since the retirement of the stump jump plough.
Neither the ‘advocate’ nor the HC in their recent deliberations apparently failed to fully take into account that our nation has been internationally applauded as being the finest example of multiculturalism successfully at work compared to any other country in the world, bar none. They appear to have unintentionally set in train a process that has so upset the Australian applecart to the extent that otherwise mild mannered folk such as yourself and others on here, whether wittingly or not, now view askance some of the hardworking Australian representatives in our national parliament as somehow being tainted; simply because they may have the blood of relatively recent foreign heritage coursing through their veins (heaven forbid!) and for which they have omitted to renounce before embarking on the oft thankless task of faithfully representing their constituents.
I think the constitution may need a tweak in this regard.
Hi Carl,
No I certainly don’t view the affected MP’S askance because they are dual citizens.
What I do view askance is this bit of outdated sect 44.
The situation we are now faced with us becoming more ludicrous with each outed member. And there will be more of them.
What it has led to is political game playing if absurd proportions. Just wait – Labor will be playing it for all its worth next week.
It’s not Turnbull’s fault. Shorten is making the most of this refusing to agree to what seem to be reasonable deadlines suggested by MT. it takes time to deal with foreign embassies. It’s some bored QC over in WA that got the ball rolling.
Okay it needs to he fixed. in the meantime, in my opinion, do the audit, fix the mess, and lay off the political games whilst this is done.
Thanks Boa, the point I was attempting to offer was that some the histronics accompanying the so called ‘crisis” being variously ventilated here and elsewhere may appear to outsiders that our national parliament was riddled with ‘Rosenbergs”.
Yourself excluded, of course.
As one of the few on this blog who is not eligible for dual citizenship, I think it is my turn to have my say.
“the most successful multi-cultural society on the world?”
If you say something long enough and loud enough people will start to believe it.
I knew too many people who refused to take up Australian citizenship because they would lose their original ones but when dual citizenship became available, they were very happy to take up Australian citizenship. Committed to this country? Bull! They just wanted a bolt hole.
If it is so successful, why do we need so many laws to smooth over the cracks?
It is not multi-cultural, it is multi-tribal and getting more so. The only thing that holds it together is our parliamentary system and the idiots in Canberra are doing their level best to cruel that..
At the top of the educated wood pile it works.
At the bottom far from it – I suggest you talk to people who are the last English speakers in the street and find out how they feel about “the most successful multicultural country in the world”.
If you want to be part of the government of this country, you cannot have two allegiances. – the rules have been there in black and white and tough – if you want to be part of it you have one and only one allegiance.
Over 150 years ago Alfred Lord Tennyson appeared to be musing about allegiance and multiculturism when he wrote:
“For I dipped into the future
Far as human eye could see;
Saw a vision of the world
And all the wonder that would be.
Till the war-drums throbbed no longer
And the battle flags were furled,
In the parliament of man
The Federation of the World.
There the common sense of most shall hold
A fretful world in awe;
And the kindly earth shall slumber
Lapt in universal law.”
Just for the record, its not quite my cup of tea.
That blythe spirit were dreamin!
JS, I remember when the British immigrants first came out here on the £10 scheme, they could vote in our elections, move freely between OZ and the UK and were still considered a valuable part of the country and I have absolutely no problem with that. Then I seem to remember ( and I could be wrong here) that some time after 1975 they could not hold dual passports. Now I am not entitled to hold dual passports, nor could I get an academic job in the UK or Europe without the University having to prove that I could do the job better than their countries citizens……again fair enough I suppose. But the fact that we are allowed a working visa for one year in the UK and then have to keep reapplying makes me think s44 is fair. As more and more information comes out about the UK’s interference in the dismissal of the Whitlam Government I think we need to rethink our naive belief that the Commonwealth is just one big happy family
And so John Alexander steps down. I am particularly impressed that our Prime Minister has legal advice that two ALP members plus Ms Sharkie may be ineligible. That may well be true, but is this the same source of legal advice that predicted Barnaby was eligible to sit in Parliament and the High Court would so find? Really, the presumption about the credulity of the Australian electorate has become ridiculous. It’s a sad day for Australian democracy when almost the only people to have acted in a truly ethical way have been the Green members who resigned as soon as they grasped their position.
Well said NFY.
Yes the Greens did act immediately in accordance with the law whilst it seems the others had to be ‘extracted’.
Ethics within the two majors? Yeah, Nah 😒
John Alexander, Liberal, Sydney seat of Bennelong, once held by John Howard, resigns, Mr Insider, possibly a dual British Citizen. Lets FGS have a fresh Federal Election! Turnbull cackling like a “girly man” when this situation put to him.
http://tinyurl.com/yb5jjvrn
These by-elections, where the peeved constituents will just re-elect the same person, are extraordinary.
Very Boadicea and as much a fan I am of Barnaby he should have had the balls and decency to stand down well before he did. Turnbull as weak as water so you cant expect much from this wastrel. Cheers
Malcolm’s in Vietnam and Julie’s in the Mumm marquee, all’s well with the world.
Anyone know where the Canadian guv’nor is??
He fled the TPP summit before dessert was served!
Dessert is probably the only Asian food i’d run from, Boa.
Canuck commentary
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/tpp-apec-summit-talks-1.4396984
from the comments thread
“So what’s the jist of this deal? Same as last 40 years I suppose. We give away our raw resources with absolutely no benefit to the vast majority of Canadians, they turn it into plastic junk using slave labor, we buy that junk back making everyone else rich, then they buy our country out from under us. Sounds like a great deal.”
Spotto. I hadn’t realised the Canadians were fine forelock tugging vassals like us.
Over the wall I suggested a Constitutional amendment to s44(i) that would constrict the section in a way that would – I think – retain the intent of the original section but prevent the right of Australian citizens to sit in their own parliament being wholly vulnerable to the vagaries of foreign legislatures.
I was howled down by a variety of people – including one very unpleasant chap who thought that proclaiming his own expertise and my ignorance was argument enough – who think the matter is as simple as just obeying the rules.
But the point I was, apparently unsuccessfully, trying to make is that the way things stand Australians can be rendered ineligible to sit in parliament by the actions of foreign governments who may, wittingly or not, sabotage their eligibility without warning and entirely beyond our control.
I won’t bet my house on it but I’ll make a tentative prediction that these landmines are going to keep blowing up under parliamentarians until someone bites the bullet and makes the decision to take an amendment to referendum.
Get you perfectly swantoono.
I would really like to know if we are still going to be coughing up pensions for these people, they’ve got away with the salary but why should they get away with the pension?
Chuckle! I saw that. They are a bit bloody minded aren’t they.
You are right of course, there should be an amnesty on past trespasses and a new set of rules for the future.
Or no half measures. Go through the lot of them root and branch past and present, demand that all benefits including pensions be refunded to the Treasury.
It’s a shemozzle, and a bit of fun. Get over it Australia.
I wouldn’t worry too much about foreign influence creeping in through the electoral process. Our politicians have always been susceptible to the influence of foreign governments and corporation, half bred or True Blues. What I would like to see is open disclosure of all monies and goods accumulated by politicians and their families during and after their public careers.
TBLS, I agree that it’s unreasonable for a politician’s standing to be dependent upon the action of a foreign power, so your amendment is sensible. However, I also think that the majority of politicians affected so far have done little in the way of due diligence to confirm their standing to be elected. Those ones should be turfed out.
For sure there are some pretty obvious examples in the current situation where it would be hard to make an argument that it was all too complicated. Definitely agree with that. I don’t suggest making it easy on people who just couldn’t be bothered – we need our lords and masters to be a little more focussed than that!
A bloody good comment TB-LS!
Get rid of dual passports – problem solved
What if they don’t have a passport?
Should have been dual nationalities
problem unsolved
Don’t you get it Bald? The wall is just that THE WALL!
Most of the comments over the wall are astounding, TBLS.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-30/barnaby-joyce-wants-referendum-to-change-constitution-section-44/9098594.
I wonder if Barnaby Joyce might just have, perhaps, something like a fairly sensible answer, dare I say it (mostly daring myself to use Barnaby Joyce and sensible in the same sentence without something like the prefix, ‘in’, before sensible). Something like a big omnibus referendum with a lot of provisions on it like happens in many states in the US of A. Get indigenous recognition, etc., out of the way as well as loosening §44 for perhaps all but the members of the National Security Committee in the Cabinet? Maybe some other housekeeping as well.
Where’s Sir John Kerr when you need him Mr Insider. 42 years on Sir John dismissed the Whitlam government and now we hear calls from the Greens for the GG to step in and end Turnbull’s pain. Of course it wont happen. ‘Well may we say God save the Queen but nothing will save Malcolm Turnbull”. Very short clip of the day Australia will never forget linked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8Tr7PFKb6U
Henry, we’ve just had Prince Charles and whatever her title is Camilla here in Penang for a quick visit. I believe the point was to shore up the Malaysian PM’s chances of getting re-elected despite the fact that he’s stolen all of Malaysia’s money. Now I’m the last one to show disrespect for the Royal Family, but as Malaysia has their own King and each State has their own Sultan, the only people who seemed to show any excitement over the visit was expat Poms. Sadly there were no Australians seen among the adoring crowd…..I wonder why?
Prince Charles and Camilla made a quick visit to you in Penang, Penny? Respect!!!
Careful Penny or you’ll have the local Special Branch knocking at your door for a ‘little chat’………
Remembrance Day 2017, Mr Insider. “Lest We Forget” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McCDWYgVyps
Also my 63rd, all good wishes gratefully accepted….
Happy birthday UQ. I’ll drag out the old bugle and play a few notes for you.
Happy Birthday, young man!
Happy Birthday to you Uncle Quentin may you have many many more to come. Cheers
Happy birthday UQ 🎂
Go well, Uncle Q. Partay up to your last one. No one gets invited back!
Happy Day, Quentin.
Happy Birhday UQ
Undoubtedly Qualitaaay
Happy birthday.
Best we Forget Blow
OT but in the middle of all this we need a laugh. This is a newish, bizarro Twitter account worth following. Don’t always trust the translations but for sure some of them are…kosher. Or is that halal?
https://twitter.com/MemriBot
It’s been nothing but laughs! Politicians squirming and prevaricating, whats better than that?
wots noo
Especially good right now.
I am finding it hard to comprehend how this parliament can continue to function. Because it seems that we cannot be sure just how many of the inmates are legit.
The next drama will probably be the SSM result. If, as it seems it will be, it’s a Yes, are the parliament supposed to have a vote?. Which, clearly they can’t. Because nobody knows who is entitled to be there anymore.
From the previous thread.
“I read that the family of one of those children has held out a hand of compassion and forgiveness to that poor woman. How beautiful.”
We don’t have the philosophy of Inshallah like the people involved do Boadicea. If it were in the middle east the family of the dead boy(s) would go talk to the family of the driver and a sum of money would be negotiated over the period of a couple of days as compensation. Not sure if the tradition is alive and well here but they said they will sit down and talk to the driver’s family.
MtK: Well that would certainly be better than putting the poor woman through a trial. And if their culture brings some relief to the parties involved with a financial settlement, then so be it. Clearly it was an awful freak accident.
Regarding the opposition to an independent audit, it’s funny, isn’t it? The citizenry can’t be trusted to buy codeine without official say-so; can’t be trusted to imbue their children with good social skills and values without weird school-delivered official indoctrinations; can’t be allowed to say what they like in matters of race or religion without commissars measuring their utterences with a slide-rule and a check-list to make sure they are officially permitted . . .
BUT! The minute someone suggests we look into whether politicians are even legally allowed to hold their jobs, it’s suddenly, “Trust us!”
I thinks it’s a good thing to have restrictions on codeine Swantoony. It can be problematic.
I get any gear I need from Roger at the retirement village so it’s no biggie.
Well, anything that diminishes your pain can be problematic. I recently developed a quite powerful addiction to Drambuie and I would rate my chances of dying in a Drambuie-related mishap many times higher than my chances of dying from a codeine overdose. Haven’t yet heard the cries for the medically-supervised prescribing of Drambuie.
There was an article recently about the numbers that the TGA are using to justify this latest infantilisation of the citizenry. Apparently there were 1400+ deaths in Australia from codeine over a five year period. What was less emphasised was that a quarter of those resulted from consumption of codeine that was already prescribed and that in the same period there had been more than SEVENTY MILLION purchases of the stuff in Australia, meaning a ludicrously small number of purchases had led to death.
I took the Liberals seriously when they promised to stop treating us like children. What a freakin’ idiot I was!
For the great movers and shakers the benefits of alcohol in controlling the masses far outweigh the negatives Swantoony. Booze is the sedative that keeps the citizens a little stupefied and incapable of the clear incisive critical thinking that would threaten the machinations of the masters of the universe.
That’s why nearly all of our popular entertainment culture shows the moderate intake of alcohol as de rigeur. Just a little addiction is even better!
Would we be going down the gurgler vis a vis AGW and extinction if people didn’t go home and pacify themselves of an evening? I doubt it. Would people believe the ridiculous nonsense they are fed if they didn’t mildly stupefy themselves en masse? Of course not.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people shoving whatever they please down their damn throats, codeine has serious problems like a whole raft of chemicals some of which are illegal or restricted, but the restriction on the balance is probably as well for the individual.
Agree JB
Whilst it peeves me that I’ll have to pay my GP his consultation fee of $95 to get a packet of Codral, codeine is highly addictive and responsible for a lot of misuse and deaths.
Other less lethal, but just as effective drugs will be prescribed.
I’ve often noted to my pharmacist that I have to show my photo ID to get pseudo-ephedrine, but I can get Oxy without.
I get mine bulk from Roger the Dodger at the nursing home. Even he wants photo ID for pseudo.
Good comment BLS. A couple of days ago was telling a story about a bit of a stoush in a bar in Budapest between two angry Canucks sorting out a personal problem. The bar was great, sawdust covered floor, wooden barrels for tables, free peanuts and ice cold Heineken on tap. Me, the drinks, bowl of peanuts and the table all hit the sawdust when one floored the other, then these two rolled round the sawdust for a couple of minutes with the floorer trying to strangle the other bloke. No real harm done though in the end, bit of mild bruising at most. The publican and a bar attendant came over while I dusted myself off, they straightened the table and chairs up, replaced the bowl of peanuts, asked if we wanted another 3 beers then brought them to the table. The other punters looked on as if it happened every night, which it didn’t, then went back to their talking and drinking. No overzealous security staff appeared, no one was asked to leave, no police attended the scene, no one was arrested, no A Current Affair or local news cameras, no nosey punters recording with their smart phones. I thought wow, just imagine this in a bar on the Gold Coast, we would have been on the national news. We have been conned and conditioned over the years. Australia, the pc capital of, well, the Southern Hemisphere at least if not the world.
The boss has been hiring back-packers the last couple of years, mostly from Europe. Many of them are absolutely astounded that Australia, with it’s reputation as a kicked-back, relaxed place, is so bat-sh*t-rules crazy. The sheer scale of bureaucratic busy-bodying quite shocks them. When I tell them my tale of being unlawfully arrested by council officers for the heinous crime of failing to provide my details (of the back of the equally egregious offence of letting my dogs run about off-leash in the middle of nowhere) they think I’m making it up!
Hi TBLS – having a fair idea about where you live, are you for real? This country has gone to the dogs (no offence to your pet mutts). As for MtK’s comment – I was in a great downstairs music bar in Budapest a few years ago – great music, allowed to have a ciggie, get pissed and stunning girls to boot (sorry, shouldnt say that). On the nails, Mrs Trabvitch and I just spent a week in London. She is Eastern European, and thus enjoys a fag (not the Oxford Street type, but now the E-cig type after a lifetime of Marlboro Reds). She enjoyed London – you can have a meal at an outside table which allows smoking. What has gone wrong in Sydney? I understand the law that you cannot smoke at a table that is a designated eating table, but, if you wish to eat at a designating smoking table you are not allowed. We are run by a pathetic lot of do gooders, who, come a decent revolution…
Used to be like that here. The last person I physically punched was 20 years ago, on the Gold Coast. Drunken kid who wouldn’t leave me drink in peace. Gave him three warnings, including to his two friends to keep him away from me. He looked kind of funny lying on the floor looking up at me. The bouncer and bartender let me stay.
Yep, that sounds about right. I reckon it all started with the Dob in a Druggie, a once a year anonymous event on a free call number that turned into a farce from the outset. Disgruntled neighbours were ringing about the next door house and the police were so pissed off chasing their tails it was cancelled after a couple of years of completely wasting police resources. It went something like 20,000 complaints with 5 convictions for possession of cannabis, something like that. No convictions for supply or anything serious if I remember correctly. Then it snowballed from there, dob in a dole cheat etc, etc.
Wow! The Duke aint dead.