The discovery that he was a dual citizen, holding New Zealand citizenship, led to Western Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam announcing his resignation after nine years. He left New Zealand with his parents as a child of three before settling in Australia as an eight year old. He took Australian citizenship in his teens and presumed that was the end of the matter. This was an error for which he takes full responsibility. The Greens have lost their co-deputy leader.
Ludlam's departure means that the Senate has now had three senators, including Bob Day, the Family First leader, from South Australia, and Rod Culleton of the One Nation Party, who was also from Western Australia, declared ineligible to sit in the Parliament in the 12 months since the last election.
One is an accident but three is an epidemic. This is a disturbing turn of events. Furthermore, another case with some similarity to that of Day, involving David Gillespie, the National Party Member for Lyne, is currently under consideration.
Each of the three senators fell victim to Section 44 of the Constitution, which lays out the circumstances in which any person is 'incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a Member of the House of Representatives'.
The first of the clauses, which caused Ludlam's downfall, concerns citizenship and related matters. The second and third clauses, which brought down Culleton, refer to criminal conviction and bankruptcy/insolvency. The fourth and fifth clauses, Day's problem, concern matters to do with financial connections to government, such as holding offices of profit, pecuniary interest and related matters.
Taken together the purpose of the Founding Fathers was to rule out various types of person who were unfit to serve as parliamentarians because of personal incapacity, treason, conflict of allegiance, conflict of interest or potential corruption. The concerns of the Constitution are understandable, but like all constitutional provisions are subject to interpretation, and this can be done by the High Court either flexibly or in a black and white manner.
Interpretation of some provisions, such as Section 44(v) on direct and indirect pecuniary interest, were interpreted narrowly by the High Court back in 1975, but broadly in 2016 when brought down on Day's head. The matter of dual citizenship, probably not envisaged when the Constitution was drafted in the 1890s, has been held to be contrary to Section 44 (i). The historical overlap between British and Australian citizenship, including