Bill
Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2020
passed, as at 2020-09-17. Home Affairs portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Home Affairs
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2019-09-19
- second reading — 2019-09-19
- second reading — 2020-09-02
- second reading — 2020-09-02
- committee — 2020-09-02
- third reading — 2020-09-02
- introduced — 2020-09-03
- second reading — 2020-09-03
- second reading — 2020-09-03
- second reading — 2020-09-03
- committee — 2020-09-03
- third reading — 2020-09-03
- passed — 2020-09-03
- royal assent — 2020-09-17
Divisions
- Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2020 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea — 2020-09-03, Senate: affirmative, ayes 35, noes 4
- Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Bill 2020 - in Committee - PJCIS oversight — 2020-09-03, Senate: negative, ayes 7, noes 31
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2019-09-19.
The bill would change how Australians with dual citizenship can lose their citizenship for terrorism-related conduct, moving from automatic loss to a decision by the Minister for Home Affairs.
Under the proposed law, the Minister could decide to strip citizenship from a dual national who engages in specified terrorism conduct, fights for a declared terrorist organisation, or is convicted of a terrorism offence and jailed for at least three years.
The bill would also lower the prison sentence threshold from six years to three years and extend the time period for considering such cases back to 29 May 2003.
- Replaces the automatic loss of citizenship with a ministerial decision model.
- Allows the Minister to revoke a citizenship cessation determination on request or on their own initiative.
- Lowers the sentence threshold for citizenship cessation from six years to three years.
- Extends the eligibility period for citizenship cessation to include conduct or convictions from 29 May 2003.
- Adds transitional provisions for cases where a person lost citizenship without ministerial awareness.
Dual nationals who engage in terrorism-related conduct or are convicted of terrorism offences, and the Minister for Home Affairs who would make the decisions.
Sources
em
em supp
em supp
em revised
billhome
frl act