Views sought on Australian Citizenship Bill

The Southern Cross Group is calling on Australians all over the world to let legislators in Canberra know their views on the Australian Citizenship Bill 2005.

They should make their submissions, on the SCG website, to a new Senate Inquiry by January 16.

The Citizenship Bill was tabled in the House of Representatives on November 9 by Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Minister John Cobb. On November 30, the Senate referred it to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by February 27.

Along with the Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Bill 2005, the Citizenship Bill will replace the Australian Citizenship Act 1948.  

A key and positive change for those in the Australian community overseas, including Malta, is a simplified route to the resumption of citizenship lost on the acquisition of another citizenship before April 4, 2002.

In addition, those who formally renounced their Australian citizenship to keep another will be able to apply to resume their Australian citizenship.

The SCG has, however, identified a number of issues which the government failed to include in the Bill.

It said that of great concern is the fact that children born overseas to Australian-born individuals after their formal renunciation of Australian citizenship were not being provided with access to Australian citizenship.

This affects some 3,000 children born to about 2,000 Australian-born people in Malta. If these children had had an Australian-citizen parent at the time of their birth, they would have been Australian citizens by descent. The average age of the children is 11, SCG said.

The Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Annette Hurley, said the opposition will be moving an amendment at both the House and the Senate in an attempt to have these children included within the ambit of the Bill. The Australian Democrats support this amendment.

www.southerncrossgroup.org/citizenship_bill/overview.html