Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

After that impassioned statement I need to make some points of clarification. Firstly, the consideration of this grew out of recommendations by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. That is why we are considering elements of this. Secondly, during a number of the contributions by those opposite during the debate of the bill, the content of this provision has been misrepresented. Many speakers rose to complain that migrants who come here and have confronted the circumstances just articulated by the member for Watson could find themselves automatically denied an opportunity to take out citizenship in Australia. Of course that is not correct.

As the member for Watson was alluding to, this only applies to people who were born in Australia. So what it means is that someone who was born in Australia would need to renounce their Australian citizenship. Then they would need to take out citizenship of another country. Then they would need to lose that citizenship, be locked up for five years by another country and at that point in time seek to return to Australia and take out Australian citizenship. So it is not a circumstance in which there is any case on record that would apply. You can make the theoretical case, but it is hard to find the practical case.

However, I would like to conclude with the fact that I have listened to the contributions and I have also examined the provisions. The government is considering the issue for any circumstance that does not go to national security matters. That certainly should not and will not change. But, if any amendments are necessary, we would look to move those in the Senate.

Question unresolved.

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