The Unusual Law Imperiling Australian Politicians

Australian lawmakers have been urgently checking their family trees, searching for evidence that they may be citizens of other nations -- and thereby disqualified from holding office. The developing crisis has so far embroiled seven members of Parliament, with one by far the most important: Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who revealed in August that his father’s New Zealand heritage made him a Kiwi, too. With the High Court set to consider Joyce’s fate, the stakes are high. Should he lose, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government could ultimately go with him.

Section 44 of Australia’s constitution says people are disqualified from becoming federal lawmakers if they are “a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power.” The constitution was written when Australia was a collection of British colonies and became law in 1900. The clause in Section 44 previously cost a female lawmaker her place in the Senate in 1999.