Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With the stroke of a pen from a foreign nation whole groups of people can be disqualified from standing for parliament. That's what our Constitution says. According to our Constitution, a person can't stand for or be a sitting member of parliament if they are a citizen of another country. If a foreign parliament decides to make someone a citizen, even against the person's knowledge or will, that person can't be a member of parliament anymore. We're handing over the power to decide who our representatives are to another country, and I'm sure the Constitution never meant that. It doesn't make any sense to me. It's completely bizarre.

A bigger and more troubling issue is not around citizenship at all; it is with the provision around holding an office of profit under the Crown. This rule prevents teachers, nurses, police officers, doctors and members of Defence—anybody profiting from the Crown—from standing for parliament. If you have a contract with the government, guess what? You're out; you're not in. You're not allowed. People who have cared for their communities, people who have had a public life and people who have sought to make a contribution to the lives of people around them are not able to become politicians unless they throw that job in and quit. This is so absurd. It absolutely diminishes the political pool that we should have up here. You're knocking a heap of people out, and it is not fair. Those are the kinds of people that we need in here—leaders in their community and in their own fields who want to help people and are prepared to make a difference and put it on the line. The fact that we don't have more people like that in parliament today is depressing. It's inexcusable that that rule is preventing them getting here. Any government with a spine would have a referendum to get rid of this rule altogether.

Every Australian citizen, everyone who was born here, should be allowed to run for public office—everybody. You've just chucked out a whole pool of people, and it's not fair—it's not fair to the electorates and it's not fair to them.