Up to five million Australians retain an allegiance to other countries, and the number of people with dual nationality is rising. After the evacuation of thousands of Australians from Lebanon, pressure is growing to reconsider federal laws that make dual citizenship easier. The cost and scale of the rescue operation has angered many Australians. They suspect their taxes are being used by people who have an Australian passport as a safety precaution.
The size of the dual citizen population is not known and Tuesday’s Census will not include a question on dual citizenship. A spokesman for the Australian Bureau of Statistics said the only question would be if a person was an Australian citizen or not. A Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs call for the dual citizen question to be in the Census was rejected.
The key change to citizenship law came in 2002 when Section 17 of the Australian Citizenship Act was repealed. Under Section 17, an Australian-born person had to hand in their passport if they accepted another nation’s citizenship. Next year, legislation is likely to make it easier to be a dual citizen. A new Citizenship Bill would allow people who lost their Australian passports under Section 17 to get them back, as long as they were of good character. As well, their children could get access to Australian citizenship. And the children of Australians who had been born overseas would also find it easier to apply through the right of descent laws.
Federal Government citizenship spokesman Andrew Robb, who has had to deal with the Lebanon evacuation crisis and its visa issues, said he had been advised there were five million dual nationals in Australia. "We’re quite interested to hear what people have to say about it (dual citizenship). But it’s never been raised as an issue," he said. Mr Robb said that when people swore their oath of citizenship they swore their primary loyalty to Australia.
National president of the RSL, Major-General Bill Crews, said his organisation had reservations about the idea of dual citizenship. "There are some dangers. Just which country do you show your allegiance to? There is a potential conflict of interest," Maj-Gen Crews said. "That conflict becomes more pronounced when the two countries have a difference of opinion. We see the scope for a conflict of interest." The Howard Government plans to tighten citizenship laws with ASIO checks on applications, the residency requirement lifted from 12 months to three years and people who had committed crimes liable to have their passports revoked.
