On Friday, 6 April 2018 12:37:31 PM AEST Andrew McGlashan via luv-talk wrote:
Do not screw with the Australian Constitution, it isn't worth the risk
Well, sometimes it is as useful as horse riding rules to regulate car traffic. If you have a closer look, it is quite profane, not much you really need to keep sacred. Section 44 is a case in point. Here something I wrote last year, maybe some food for thoughts. I found it bizarre that everybody was harping and carping about their politicians' mistakes, nearly nobody considered the rules. Reluctantly, months later, we heard voices recently asking for reform, among them Michael Kirby and others. The Australian Constitution is not a in expression of an independent country, it is not much more than a description of basic procedures when a bunch of British colonies united. Our Commonwealth is a creation of the British Parliament, through the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900. It took another 86 years to pass the Australia Act 1986, in the British and the Australian parliament, until the UK ceased all possibilities to legislate with effect in Australia! How did the world look like in 1900? The human population was ca. 1.7 billion people. 420 million, or around the quarter of all people lived under the rule of the British Empire. All of Ireland, Canada, British-India including today’s Pakistan and Bangladesh, several African colonies, and, of course Australia were British then. On our doorsteps we had the world’s second biggest Empire: 415 million were ruled by the Chinese Emperor. Tensions between Chinese and Anglo-Saxons were ripe during the Gold Rush, and stayed for the remainder of the 19th century. Between 1875 and 1888 all colonies legislated against Chinese migration. At the time the Constitution was written the citizenship of the Australian citizen was British, and all what they wanted is making sure that Australia was ruled by the British and nobody else. The section 44 of the constitution is written in this context. Today’s Australia looks unrecognizable for the eyes of the Federation’s founders. In 1948 we established Australian citizenship, and law made it easy to acquire Australian citizenship while holding another. Dual citizenship did not exist in 1900 under British law either, only the British Nationality Act 1948 codified this and made it easy to be a dual citizen. Today I am surrounded by many many migrants, and many of them still have connections to the land they came from, to their families there. The dual citizenship is a godsend for them, e.g. giving them the ability to look after their elders and siblings in need without being restricted by visa. I know a friend who actually gave up her German citizenship. Her father is dying, and she could stay with him for three months only. Most likely she will not see him again. Most of them will scoff at the thought of “loyalty” to their old home. They live here and are proud Australians. The links to their old home is of practical nature, the passport means for quite profane reasons. The current legislation feels bizarre when I am amongst colleagues, friends and acquaintances, when I look around in the streets of Melbourne. They may be born here or came here as toddlers, as children or young adults and live here for the most of their lives. Still, they have grandmothers and grandfathers or are married to a partner from every country in the world I can think of. Imagine that a mess if the cute little girl I shot side by side at my archery club last week wants to stand for parliament? Her mother, her father and a grandfather. Japanese, French and Hungarian Jewish is mixed in her genes. There are a few sections of the Constitution that are out of date, feel free to look through it. It hampers and prevents a sizable part of the population from equal representation. Migrants live here, pay taxes, have the right to vote, get fined when they do not – so just let them represent themselves and their people. As a healthy side effect it solves a current crisis which makes Australian politicians a laughing stock. Regards Peter