This passage from Tony Abbott's Battlelines has taken on a sinister new meaning:
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The strange and suspicious case of Tony Abbott’s citizenship
Why is the PM's chief of staff so desperate to prevent proof emerging about whether Tony Abbott is eligible to sit in Parliament? Sydney bureau chief Ross Jones reports.
You don’t want to be blocked by Mal Brough — look what happened to Peter Slipper.
It happened to Tony Magrathea when he posted a message to Brough telling him there was a serious cloud hanging over the legitimacy of his leader, Anthony John Abbott, to hold the highest public office in the land.
Magrathea is a Sunshine Coast-based blogger who doesn't normally get involved in the political arena. He refers to himself as ‘The Ideas Man’ and his blog normally covers technology issues.
Born in England, Magrathea is about the same age as Abbott and, like Abbott, came to Australia as a £10 pom. Abbott arrived in 1960 aged three.
Before the last election, Abbott made a few comments that piqued Magrathea’s interest in Abbott’s progression from England to Australia, then back to England to Oxford, then back to Australia and a life in politics.
Magrathea noticed an odd thing: Abbott had been apparently granted Australian citizenship back in 1981 — as he was entitled to do, because while his father was British and he was born in London, his mother was Australian. This apparent change in status meant Abbott was now a dual British/Australian citizen.
1981 was the year Abbott ‘matriculated’ to Oxford, but he did so as a British citizen.
After Oxford, he returned to Australia and entered a seminary. The priesthood didn't stick and, after managing a cement plant, and then some stints as a journalist, monarchist and apparatchik, he entered Parliament in 1994.
Section 44 of the Australian Constitution is clear when it says:
Dual nationality is considered an acknowledgement of allegiance and entitled to the privileges of citizenship of a foreign power disqualifies people from standing for parliament.
This is a provision strictly applied. In 1996, Jackie Kelly was forced to face a by-election after being found to have been elected holding both Australian and New Zealand citizenship. Employment Minister Senator Eric Abetz appears to have been elected to the Senate holding dual German and Australian citizenship before finally renouncing his citizenship after a High Court action has been commenced against him.
So Magrathea, in an idle moment, had a look around for the date Abbott renounced his British citizenship — but there was no apparent record.
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