Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to bring to the attention of the House the failure of the government to fulfil its promise to enact the Australian Citizenship Bill. The bill is a very important piece of legislation for many Australians but in particular for Maltese Australians, who have been waiting now for three years since there was an undertaking by this government to fix what has been an anomaly in the law that does not allow people who were born here and who were forced to relinquish their citizenship to have their citizenship restored.

This anomaly was first brought to my attention when Steve and Lilian Schembry approached my office in December 2003, almost three years ago, seeking help. Steve was born in Melbourne in 1966 to Maltese immigrant parents. He was brought up in St Albans and spent his first 18 years there. He went to school at St Albans tech and he barracks for the Western Bulldogs. In 1984, when he was 18, his parents decided to move back to Malta. At about the same time, his future wife, Lilian, who had been born and brought up in Australia, also moved back to Malta with her parents. Maltese law, prior to 2000, required young people of Maltese descent to renounce their Australian citizenship between their 18th and 19th birthdays in order to retain their Maltese citizenship. Those failing to do so became ineligible for tertiary education and were unable to hold certain jobs, access social security and the like. That was bad law in Malta at the time.

I am glad to say that Maltese law has been repealed. But we have had a series of ministers of this government give undertakings to the Maltese community that this matter would be resolved. Steve and Lilian and their children, and others like them, are waiting to see whether this law will be enacted so that they can resume a normal life. In the case of Steve, he was only able to find employment after the government intervened. However, only recently he was retrenched from that work and he is now looking for work. I spoke to both him and Lilian last week. They are at their wits end, wondering whether the government’s commitments are genuine. They are trying to understand why a bill that has been agreed to by the opposition cannot pass this House prior to Christmas and why they now have to wait at least a number of months before realising their full citizenship of this country. I think it is an absolute disgrace. It shows that the government is out of touch and not concerning itself with Maltese Australians and others who will be adversely affected until this bill’s enactment.