The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has commenced a review of the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2019.
The Bill is intended to provide that, at the determination of the Minister for Home Affairs, a person who is a national or citizen of a country other than Australia ceases to be an Australian citizen if the person acts inconsistently with their allegiance to Australia by:
- engaging in specified terrorism-related conduct;
- fighting for, or being in the service of, a declared terrorist organisation outside Australia;
- engaging in conduct that results in a conviction for a specified terrorism offence, and sentenced to a period of imprisonment of at least 3 years, or periods totalling at least 3 years.
The Bill intends to provide for a period in which the individual subject to a determination can apply to the Minister for Home Affairs to have this determination revoked. It also provides for the Minister for Home Affairs to revoke a determination on his or her own initiative, or for the determination to be automatically revoked in certain circumstances.
The Bill is also intended to address the Independent National Security legislation Monitor’s recommendation that the current ‘operation of law’ model, whereby a dual-national’s Australian citizenship is automatically renounced through their actions, be replaced by a Ministerial decision model.
The Committee’s review of the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2019 will be conducted concurrently with its ongoing Review of the Australian Citizenship renunciation by conduct and cessation provisions. This ongoing review will take into account the changes proposed by the Bill.
Making a submission
The Committee invites written submissions addressing any or all aspects of the Bill.
Prospective submitters are advised that any submission to the inquiry must be prepared solely for this purpose and should not be published prior to being accepted by the Committee.
Submissions are requested by Monday 14 October 2019. Further information about making a submission to a committee inquiry can be found at the following link.