The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS)
has commenced a review into the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2019.
The Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2019 is intended to provide that, at the discretion 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 resulting in the cessation of their citizenship 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 INSLM’s key recommendation, in his Review of the operation, effectiveness and implications of terrorism-related citizenship loss provisions 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.
Prospective submitters are advised that any submission to the Committee’s inquiry must be prepared solely for the inquiry and should not be published prior to being accepted by the Committee.
Submissions are requested by Monday 14 October 2019.
The Committee notes its concurrent Review of the Australian Citizenship renunciation by conduct and cessation provisions and confirms it intends to complete this review by 1 December 2019 taking into account the changes put forward in the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2019.
The Minister has requested that the Committee finalise its review of the Bill by 1 December 2019.
