Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That this House require all Members to provide statements in relation to citizenship in the following terms:

Members ' statements in relation to citizenship

(1) By not later than 9 am, 5 December 2017 (and otherwise within 21 days of making and subscribing an oath or affirmation as a Member of the House of Representatives) each Member shall provide to the Registrar of Members' Interests a statement containing the following:

(a) a declaration by the Member that, at the time the Member nominated for election to the House of Representatives in this 45th Parliament, he or she was an Australian citizen;

(b) a declaration that the Member is not a citizen of any country other than Australia;

(c) a declaration stating:

  (i) the place and date of the Member's birth;

  (ii) the citizenship that the Member held at the time of birth; and

  (iii) if he or she did not obtain Australian citizenship at birth, the date he or she was naturalised as an Australian citizen;

(d) so far as the Member is aware the place and date of birth of the Member's parents, grandparents and spouse (if applicable);

(e) whether the Member has ever been a citizen of another country and, if so, which country or countries;

(f) what steps the Member has taken to assure him or herself that the Member has not acquired citizenship of another country by descent, marriage or other means;

(g) if the Member has answered the question in (e) in the affirmative, details and evidence of the date and manner in which the Member's citizenship of that other country was renounced (if it was renounced) and/or the date and manner in which it came to an end in accordance with the laws of that other country;

(h) if the Member's citizenship of that other country had not come to an end at the date of his or her nomination for the House of Representatives, details and evidence of any steps the Member has taken to renounce the citizenship of that other country prior to the date of nomination; and

  (i) if the Member has declared that he or she was at the time of nomination or is now a citizen of a country other than Australia, on what basis the Member contends that he or she is, nonetheless, not disqualified under section 44(i) of the Constitution.

(2) if at any time the Member becomes aware that information provided in the statement is no longer accurate he or she shall update the statement as soon as practicable but by no later than 21 days of being so aware;

Committee of Privileges and Members ' Interests

(3) Statements shall be made in accordance with this resolution and in a form determined by the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests. The Registrar shall, in accordance with procedures determined by the committee, maintain a Citizenship Register comprising statements provided under this resolution. Other than as specifically provided for in this resolution, the committee has the same powers and functions in relation to the citizenship register as it does in relation to the Register of Members' Interests.

Citizenship Register published on website

(4) The Registrar shall, upon the expiry of the time for providing statements under this resolution, and at other times determined by the committee, publish the register and any alterations or additions to the register on the Parliament's website.

False statements or omissions regarded as contempt

(5) Any Member who:

(a) knowingly fails to provide the statement required by this resolution to the Registrar of Members' Interests by the due date; or

(b) knowingly fails to correct an inaccuracy in his or her statement within the required timeframe; or

(c) knowingly provides false or misleading information to the Registrar of Members' Interests;

shall be guilty of a serious contempt of the House of Representatives and shall be dealt with by the House accordingly; a question of whether any Member has committed such a serious contempt shall first be referred to the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests for inquiry and report.

Referrals to the Court of Disputed Returns

(6) Notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders or any other resolution, referral of a Member to the Court of Disputed Returns may be moved without notice by a Minister or the Manager of Opposition Business.

I won't delay the House at great length debating the citizenship register. It's been well and truly debated in the public domain, and today is not the day for debates about the referral of members of the House to the High Court sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns. But I will explain the elements of the motion to the House. The first clause of the motion establishes a register of citizenship, asks members to make statements in relation to their citizenship and requires them to do so once the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests has finalised the terms of a form which I understand has been written and circulated. The Privileges Committee will make a decision about that directly after this debate, and then the form will be circulated to all members to be returned to the clerks by 9 am tomorrow morning, so 9 am Tuesday, 5 December.

We have been working through the terms of this register and this motion with the opposition and with the crossbenches, and we settled on nine o'clock on Tuesday morning because we made, I think, the fair assumption that most members by now will have checked out their citizenship and any steps they might have taken to renounce citizenship of another country, and we want to give the Speaker and the clerks ample time to be able to get that information up onto the internet to enable people who are interested to examine the evidence as presented by members and then to give us ample time in the House of Representatives this week to refer any members to the High Court if that is in fact necessary. In the case of at least three members, the government believes it will be necessary, but that's not a debate we have to make today.

So members will be asked to make a declaration concerning their citizenship. They'll be asked to provide evidence of their parents', grandparents' and spouses', if applicable, citizenship. If it's found in any of those cases that there is a reason why they may be a dual citizen of another country, what steps did they take to renounce that citizenship and when was it so renounced?

The second aspect of the motion places it under the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests, which, of course, is where the Register of Interests is held by the House, and gives the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interest the power over this particular aspect of the standing orders. The next aspect shows when the citizenship register will be published on the website. We haven't put a hard time on the publication on the website, out of courtesy, really, to the clerks and to the Speaker's office, where we felt that potentially it would be difficult to meet a particular deadline, but I think we're all fully understanding and cognisant of the need to get that information out into the public domain as quickly as possible. I'm sure there'll be no delays in trying to do that, but we didn't put a hard time for that to happen.

Element 5 is that, of course, false statements or deliberate omissions will be regarded as a contempt of the parliament and the necessary sanctions would be applied after a reference to the Privileges Committee of anyone who does give false information in the register and that the referrals to the Court of Disputed Returns would not only be able to be made by a minister but also by the Manager of Opposition Business in the House. Clearly, that is a departure from the current standing orders, but the view has been taken that, of course, a majority is required to refer any member to the Court of Disputed Returns in any event. We have been working with the opposition on the register of citizenship because I think it's in all of our interests to ensure that everybody sitting in the House is legitimately elected, and, of course, the government has taken its steps. We had a by-election in New England which we spectacularly won on the weekend. We had a spectacular win on Saturday, a record-breaking win—the biggest win for a government in a by-election, by the way, since 1911.

A government member: The swing was bigger than the Labor vote.

The swing was bigger than the Labor vote, as the Deputy Leader of the House points out. And we will have a by-election in Bennelong, as you referred to this morning, Mr Speaker. We have done the right thing on this side of the House, but I think it's in everyone's interests to be sure that everyone sitting in the parliament is legitimately sitting here, and that's why we move this motion. I look forward to the support of the opposition and the crossbenches.

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