Australian Politicians Flaunt the System Again! - Dual Citizens Resign
Australian Politicians
In Australia, as in many other countries, you cannot hold any citizenship, other than Australian, to serve in our Federal Parliament. Today, another 5 sitting members resigned from parliament as they had dual citizenships when elected. This was ruled on today by the High Court of Australia and, subsequently, the members were forced to resign by the Attorney-General. This will now force costly by-elections to occur in these seats, further wasting tax-payers money ahead of an election that will occur in the next 12 months anyway.
These are not the first members of parliament that have been forced to resign over the citizenship debacle. Which brings me to the question of: How can these candidates not be vetted properly before they are elected?
Basically it comes down to incompetence I believe. Two major political parties in Australia have run the country for many years and it would not surprise me that there have been many many members of parliament who have breached the citizenship requirements over the years. It is only now that they have been identified and addressed by the parliament.
In most cases, the sitting members renounce the citizenship of the other country and re-run in the by election to be re-elected. I think once you break the rules of the parliament then you are no longer able to have a seat at the federal table. Unfortunately, what is expected of the average Australian citizen dos not apply to the members of parliament in many cases. This is now showing as the confidence the Australian people have in their politicians and the main political parties is dwindling quickly. I cannot see how either of the two leaders of the main political parties in Australia are suitable to be the Prime Minister and lead the country. Neither has any popularity or confidence of the people but, unfortunately, the way the system is set up in Australia, the popular vote is hard to change and we will be stuck with these two parties for a while longer!
Rant Over!
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I still don't understand why this is a big deal. So many Aussies have dual citizenship, cos it's awesome. Plus I'd take 2 passports over being a slimy politician any day.
Politics has had very little to do with Aussies for a long time. It seems to be some kind of game now.
Representative Democracy is dead, it's time for Direct Democracy
Well, if you are a dual citizen you might not have the best interests of Australia at heart.... I don't know of any politicians out there that don't put themselves and their re-election first anyway!