Under the existing citizenship cessation laws changed after the high court ruling, a minister can apply for a court order to consider whether a person with dual citizenship – and who has been convicted of a serious offence, including terrorism, espionage, foreign interference, with a jail sentence of at least three years – should have their Australian citizenship stripped.
Helen Irving, a constitutional law expert, said a future Dutton government wanting tougher powers to strip dual citizens for hate speech offences could attempt to lower the existing law’s threshold or change the constitution through a referendum.
“I think it’s a conversation for our country at some point, maybe sooner than later, about how we can say to these people, ‘if you don’t share our values, if you’re here and you’re enjoying the welfare system and you’re enjoying free health and free education, then at the same time you hate our country, well, I don’t think you’ve got a place here’,” Dutton told 2GB on Thursday.
In 2022, the high court ruled the home affairs minister’s powers to strip dual nationals of Australian citizenship as unconstitutional, describing it as “punishment in the sense of retribution” and depriving a person of citizenship based on the minister’s discretion rather than a conviction.
Guardian Australia understands one of the nurses gained citizenship in 2020, years after fleeing from Afghanistan to Australia as a child, while Dutton was home affairs minister.
