Australian government seeks arbitrary powers to revoke citizenship

Mike Head

The Liberal-National government introduced a bill last week that would hand the home affairs minister extraordinary powers to “cease” the citizenship of anyone accused of “repudiating” their “allegiance” to Australia. This is the latest in a series of attacks on the fundamental democratic right of citizenship.

The bill goes beyond a 2015 act that handed the government such a citizenship-stripping power for the first time. It is another indication of the repressive measures that the ruling class is preparing to deal with rising working-class discontent. Without citizenship, people can be deprived of other basic civil and political rights, such as residence, voting, healthcare and welfare.

Under the 2015 legislation, some ministerial decisions to revoke citizenships depend on recommendations by a hand-picked Citizenship Loss Board. According to the government, this “operation of law” model is now to be replaced by a “ministerial model” that allows the home affairs minister to unilaterally cancel citizenships. In other words, the government is dispensing with the pretence of a legal process.

For now, the powers are still confined to people who are deemed to be dual citizens, not sole citizens of Australia. But that affects more than six million people—about a quarter of the population. And the bill makes it easier for the government to claim that someone has, or can claim, another citizenship. The bill only requires the minister to be “satisfied” that a person is entitled to another citizenship.

The new legislation was tabled on the pretext of combating terrorism, like all the 75 other “anti-terrorism” measures implemented by federal governments since 2001. In reality, the bill would enable a single minister to revoke the citizenship of a person for conduct or convictions relating to a range of political offences, including “foreign interference,” sabotage, espionage and treason, not just terrorism.

The bill’s explanatory memorandum claims that such crimes are “inconsistent with allegiance to Australia.” Opponents of Australian military operations, as part of the US alliance, whether in the Middle East or the Indo-Pacific region, could fall under these clauses.

The Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2019 provides for citizenships to be revoked by decree in two ways. One is based on a conviction and imprisonment for three years or more for one of these terrorism or political offences. This is down from the previous threshold of six years’ jail. That power would be backdated to cover all convictions from 2003.

The other form of revocation requires no criminal conviction whatsoever. The home affairs minister could simply declare that a person’s citizenship has ceased because they allegedly joined or supported terrorist-related activity or were a member of a proscribed terrorist organisation. This is far-reaching because the definition of terrorist acts can cover political protests, and the minister can issue regulations to proscribe political groups by arbitrarily branding them “terrorist.”

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said 12 people had already had their citizenship revoked since 2015. He referred to “around 80 Australians of counter-terrorism interest” believed to be in Syria and Iraq. He would not reveal how many more individuals could be affected by the expanded ministerial power.