May 9, 2018
KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter stood behind fellow crossbencher Rebekha Sharkie today as she resigned due to the High Court ruling saying she did not take reasonable steps to renounce her British citizenship, despite lodging her paperwork prior to the election even being called and being returned from the UK confirming the renunciation before assuming her position has the Member for Mayo.
KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter stood behind fellow crossbencher Rebekha Sharkie today as she resigned due to the High Court ruling saying she did not take reasonable steps to renounce her British citizenship, despite lodging her paperwork prior to the election even being called and being returned from the UK confirming the renunciation before assuming her position has the Member for Mayo.
Mr Katter warned, “Referring to the debacle today – don’t ever accuse the Independents of causing instability when both ALP and LNP playing their party games have created this.
“It was criminally irresponsible of the Government not to move on the citizenship issue.”
Mr Katter warned that the citizenship saga spanned beyond the Australian Parliament and was far from over highlighting a serious concern remains for everyday Australian’s that hold dual citizenship.
“Take the China example, China has declared all that all Chinese people overseas will be citizens of China.
“Now we should immediately declare that if they have renounced their allegiance to China and taken the oath of loyalty to Australia, then they are Australian citizens and the laws of any other country do not or will not apply.
“That could have been done 12 months ago and none of this instability and turmoil would have occurred.
“You say ‘well the constitutional effect is retrospective’ whilst that may be true, you would be churlish in the extreme to carry out an action once that legislation has passed – while the law is there, there is no one to enforce it.
“Let the Australian people understand; Chinese people are pouring into the North West quarter of Australia. They own the only port, almost all the available irrigation water and majority of the land. And soon they will be the overwhelming population of Australia – yet China will have declared them all citizens.”