But how am I going to explain this to the Americans?

[tielan]

Right, so, the Australian High Court has declared five Australian politicians ineligible for Australian parliament - ONE OF THEM THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER. There were seven in total, but five were declared ineligible (two of whom had already resigned). The other two were allowed (but one had already resigned before the verdict came out).

This was after that self-same deputy prime minister (now ineligible for his position and out of parliament) gleefully cackled over those two who pre-resigned discovering themselves ineligible.

Let me tell you, the schadenfreude is DELICIOUS.

Comments

[tielan]

Complicated rules of British/New Zealand citizenship, meaning the politicians involved all had dual citizenship - some of them unaware of it, some of them unthinking of it, and some knowing of it and just 'believing in his heart' he was Australian...

The rule goes that you're not allowed to serve in Australian parliament if any foreign nation has a legal claim on your loyalty (ie. you're a citizen of another country, even dual).

[havocthecat]

and some knowing of it and just 'believing in his heart' he was Australian...

...no! Oh my goodness, what an idiot.

(Oh, the schadenfreude, you're so right.)

[tielan]

Barnaby Joyce: the article (you've probably read) is here.

Malcolm Roberts: Am I Still A British Citizen?

You can see the carnage on Twitter under #Citizenship7