I have discovered that, despite my passion and intention to try and make a difference, I am not able to nominate for election to the Senate as I was, earlier this year, granted Naturalisation in the United Kingdom and therefore hold Dual Nationality.

Looking at the AEC website this is listed as one of the exclusions under the Constitution, Clause 44, that bar nomination for public office.

Section 17 of the Australian Citizenship Act (1948) was repealed as it meant citizens without Dual Nationality 'by birth' automatically lost their Australian Citizenship if they took nationality of another country. The argument around the repeal of this section was that there were around 2.5m Australians already holding Dual Nationality by birth. Since this section was repealed a record number of Australians resident in the UK have applied for, and been granted, Dual Nationality.

As a result more than 10% of the Australian population is barred from the House of Representatives and Senate on these grounds alone.

Is this still appropriate or do we want to change the Constitution?

NHJ! (JR): A very good question, in this era of the 'global citizen'. Thoughts, anyone?