New Australian government lawmaker under dual citizen cloud
CANBERRA, Australia — Another Australian politician has had his eligibility to sit in Parliament called into question due to a constitutional ban on dual citizens, while the prime minister proposed making all lawmakers prove they are not foreign nationals.
Ruling party lawmaker John Alexander would not comment Tuesday on media reports that he was seeking clarification from London on whether he had inherited British citizenship from his father.
“I understand he renounced his British citizenship before I was born because he was a proud Australian,” Alexander said in a statement about his father, who died in 1987.
If Alexander proved to be a dual citizen he would become the seventh lawmaker to be forced from office since the High Court last month made a ruling to enforce a 116-year-old constitutional ban on foreign citizens sitting in Parliament. That has created an unprecedented political crisis that could threaten the majority of Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull’s conservative coalition.