What is Tony Abbott hiding? There’s a rather odd case that’s developing in the media and it’s the question of whether the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, is fit to hold office in the Australian Parliament. Before you start thinking, ‘Oh no, not another critique on Tony Abbott’s character’, this is more to do with a technicality and nothing to do with his moral character (although that’s one thing that we’ll end up on). According to Section 44 of the Australian Constitution, a person who is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power, is disqualified from becoming a candidate for election to the Australian Parliament. This has been widely interpreted to mean that persons with dual citizenship are not permitted to stand for election. Tony Abbott was born in the United Kingdom in 1957, and arrived in Australia with his parents in 1960. His father is British and his mother is Australian. Although living in Australia for most of his life, he did not become an Australian citizen until 1981, a requirement for his Rhodes scholarship. There has been conjecture for some time as to whether Tony Abbott has renounced his British citizenship but the issue has developed further over the past month, with the investigations by Tony Magrathea, detailing his attempts to determine whether this renunciation ever occurred, starting to become more prominent. This seems to be such a small (but important) matter, that is seems peculiar that Tony Abbott’s chief-of-staff, Peta Credlin, has gone to great lengths to refuse Freedom of Information requests for access to any available documentation from the National Archives of Australia, or the British Office of Records. It seems that there are three possibilities in this issue: Read More: newpolitics.au/what-is-tony-abbott-hiding
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 12:05:02 +0000
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