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Why did Tony Abbott wait until he was almost 24 years old to become an Australian citizen?

There are a few questions about Tony Abbott’s citizenship that need answering, writes clarencegirl in this guest post.

When Anthony John Abbott was born to an English father and a first-generation Australian mother at a general lying-in hospital in York Road, Lambeth, London, on 4 November 1957, his parents did not register him as an Australian infant born overseas or immediately apply for Australian citizenship on his behalf.

Presumably because at that time Richard and Fay Abbott thought they would be permanently living in England and raising a family there.

He therefore had only one official nationality status – as a British subject and citizen.

In fact it was not until over twenty years after the family had arrived in Australia as subsidised assisted migrants that Tony Abbott’s parents applied to register his birth with the Dept. of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and apply for his citizenship, in a document/s dated 19 June 1981.

This application appears to have been treated as urgent by departmental staff.

His parents were subsequently informed in a letter dated 1 July 1981 that Anthony John Abbott was now deemed to be an Australian citizen under Section 11 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 which allowed citizenship by descent.

At this time Tony Abbott was 23 years and 7 months of age and, had either applied for a Rhodes Scholarship or was intending to apply for this scholarship to study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
Currently such applications must be applied for after 1 June in the year a Rhodes Scholarship is on offer.

To gain a Rhodes Scholarship an applicant has to be an Australian citizen and have been resident in Australia for at least five of the last ten years.

Tony Abbott was apparently intending to depart Australia on or about 10 July 1981 and, started his scholarship course at Queens College, Oxford, in October 1981.

One cannot escape the suspicion that the future Prime Minister of Australia only applied for Australian citizenship at that time in order to gain a monetary advantage which would allow him to further his studies overseas.

Which, if true, would make him a somewhat reluctant Aussie and perhaps go some way to explaining his strong admiration of the British monarchy and those anachronistic English titles he has re-introduced (without consultation with Cabinet or party room) into the Australian honours system.

Note: Immigration and citizenship information found at the National Archives of Australia.

This article was first published on North Coast Voices under the title The real reasons Anthony John ‘Tony’ Abbott waited until he was almost 24 years old to become an Australian citizen? and has been republished with permission.

 

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92 comments

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  1. FIG Woodworks

    Can it be recinded?

  2. Pingback: Why did Tony Abbott wait until he was almost 24 years old to become an Australian citizen? | lmrh5

  3. kathysutherland2013

    Is this relevant to anything? I don’t think we need to go hunting in people’s backgrounds. We should be concentrating on Mr Abbott’s current conduct and policies.

  4. Kaye Lee

    He also waited until he was 32 to get his first job.

  5. john921fraser

    <

    @kathysutherland2013

    It goes to backgrounding what an ar*ehole is.

    Sir Pository Abbott of Lying, Cheating and Bullying.

    Knave Commander of the Formica Table.

  6. Kaye Lee

    Was Mr Abbott a citizen when he applied for and was accepted for the scholarship?

  7. Roseanne Byrne

    Did he ever give up his British citizenship? You can’t be an MP and be a citizen of another country.

  8. rangermike1

    I keep asking myself, why this Dirk came here in the first place. A Ten Pound Pom with No idea and little sense.

  9. Roswell

    Kaye Lee. Perhaps nobody would employ him. 🙂

  10. Kaye Lee

    So Andrew Bolt can say that certain people “motivated by career opportunities available to Aboriginal people or by political activism, have chosen to falsely identify as Aboriginal”. I assume he will be all over this story tomorrow.

  11. rangermike1

    It should read, Sir Anthony of the round table pullers. Tugging forelocks and other parts of the body. Tony excels in these progressions of going backwards.

  12. clusterpod

    Isn’t this all getting a bit “Obama was born in Kenya?”

  13. Kaye Lee

    Roseanne,

    “Both Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott were born in the UK and were forced to renounce their British citizenship before standing for Parliament.”

    That’s from a 2010 article in the Courier mail but I am sure they would have been aware because there were two high court cases in the 80s and 90s where Senators had to give up their seats because they had dual citizenship.

  14. Roswell

    Clusterpod, I actually think Abbott was born in Mozembique.

  15. Roswell

    It’s funny you should mention that. I’ve been checking out his ancestory, but I’ve had to ‘scale’ down my investigations.

  16. Ricky Pann

    Roswell, next you’ll be suggesting he’s a reptilian. :mrgreen:

    All repilian brain

  17. turnleft2016

    Does it matter? A man who passed off actions he did in university – including criminal damage and assault as childish pranks, is actually an adult at 24. His character is formed, and to this 24 year old, he has no love for this country, citizenship is a matter of convenience – it is all about what this country can do for him. It’s not about serving our communities, it’s about getting things, that’s his entire family history, getting things – away from the wars, cheap passage to Australia, citizenship for education. His most basic motives are not about making the country better, or helping other people, its what they can do for him.

  18. Carol Taylor

    Julia Gillard was born in Wales, migrated to Australia age 5, she was 13 years old when her family decided to take out Australian citizenship. She held dual citizenship (as do most British subjects) and renounced her British citizenship prior to entering parliament. There was no suggestion of obtaining advantage by her renouncing her British citizenship.

  19. rangermike1

    Kaye Lee, the Bolter is always correct. Right or wrong, he can stitch up an argument to prove the Feral Labor supporters “All wrong”. His little tongue must have threads of ermine and lace falling from them as he kisses Royalty’s Bootie. Save a prayer for the Bolter, He never understands Life.

  20. Kaye Lee

    Speaking of reptilian….

  21. Michael Taylor

    Kathy, it might be showing us an insight to the character of the man. That makes it relevant. A bit like the wall-punching episode.

    Besides, there is more to this story, which hopefully we’ll have in the next couple of days.

  22. Fed up

    Was not his father some her kind of dentist. Maybe to escape socialised medicine.

    After all, it is said, his father managed to spend the war years here, returning to the UK when it was over.

    We should be fair, it was not the norm for UK migrants to rush out and get Australian citizenship. Many did not see the need, Australian citizenship had not been around for that long. Cannot remember the year, when Australianbs stop being citizens of the UK.

    Not sure, when one was allowed to keep their UK citizenship as well.

    Yes, to be in politics, one has to announce the UK citizenship.

    Abbott must have found that hard, even though he was reared this country.

  23. Colleen courtney

    Was his education subsidised by taxpayers, here or in the UK? If so it makes me more bewildered regarding his attitude to education funding.x

  24. Jessica

    He is a liar and a bully. He is the worst thing to happen to Australia ever!

  25. lawrencewinder

    ..always on the take…what a sordid scrap he is.
    How much longer can we afford the Liarbrils?

  26. Michael Taylor

    Roswell, next you’ll be suggesting he’s a reptilian. :mrgreen:

  27. chris

    At this stage of the game only Australian born should be allowed to hold the office of PM

  28. Michael Taylor

    Turnleft, very good points.

  29. Chris

    “perhaps go some way to explaining his strong admiration of the British monarchy and those anachronistic English titles he has re-introduced”

    It’s not compulsory to be a monarchist if you are British. Many, like me, are republicans. See http://republic.org.uk/

  30. Stephen Tardrew

    My name is Tony and I’m full of baloney
    My name is Joe and economy I can blow
    My name is Julie gorgeous minister truly
    My name is Bronny and I will soon be gonney
    Mt name is Pell and I am going to hell
    My name is Credlin and Oh! what the hell is that?

    My name is Satin and I am just waitin

  31. Anon E Mouse

    When Tony is planning on changing the anti-discrimination act he can expect more taunting about his reluctance to become Australian, his British heritage, etc.
    Actually the first time I noticed Abbott was when there was a hull-a-bulloo over him having to give up his British citizenship.
    Abbott deserves all he gets – he can dish it out but can’t take it.

    All hail Tones – Sir LiesALot.

  32. FryaDuck

    I’m all for stripping him of his citizenship and deporting him back to the UK after 4 years in detention on Manus.

  33. Paul

    This article is a load of rubbish. I strongly doubt that you would have written it if say hypothetically he had held Chinese citizenship? I mean in any event he became a citizen over 30 years ago… it just seems like another mean spirited attempt to have a dig at the man. Is he any less an Australian because he wasn’t born here? What does that day of the millions who have made this country their home over the years? Many migrants live in this country for decades before making the decision to become citizens. I am happy for people to disagree with his policies but having a go because he supposedly waited too long to become a citizen is completely unnecessary.

  34. Larry Harper

    If Abbott is all for British titles for Aussies, why did’nt he raise the matter during the election campaign? Could it be because he dared not, knowing full well it could have cost him the election? As far as I’m concerned, Abbott is, in his heart, an Englishman, not an Aussie. Last PM a foreigner, this PM a foreigner, have we got something against installing our own people as PM?

  35. Matt

    FFS AIMN I am an avid reader and supporter of your articles, but after watching question time today this is the best you can come up with. Who give a shit? Get with the program people.

  36. Stephen Tardrew

    Your program is not every bodies program. Bit of tolerance may help. Some peoples rubbish is other peoples interest. Lets just accept life is a mixed bag and move on.

  37. John Ward

    Tony’s mum, a first generation Australian, actually renounced her Australian citizenship in order to join her British husband applying to be 10 pound poms. so it is in his DNA to switch loyalties if it suits his purpose.
    Section 44 (i.) of the constitution says any person who- under any allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power or is entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power…. shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.

    Erich Abetz held Dual Citizenship, (until just two years ago) between Australia and Germany and only renounced his German Citizenship under pressure of being taken to the High Court under section 46 by a person who tried to expose his duplicity.
    By the way Abetz is the great-nephew of SS-Brigadeführer Otto Abetz, Nazi German ambassador to Vichy France from 1940 to 1944.
    Why Abetz is still in the senate is a breakdown of the system and a national disgrace.
    If you search for him on google his nationality is listed as German, Australian, in that order.
    Why do we have rules and then allow sharp operators like these to thumb their noses at us and those that died protecting this country.

  38. Kaye Lee

    I understand the consternation about this article – we should play the ball, not the man, but the point I take from this is that the Abbott family are all about expediency – if I have to be British to get cheap passage then I am British. If I have to be Australian to get a scholarship then I am Australian. I’ll be whatever means I can get the public purse to pay for what I want.

  39. oldfart

    Because he is a week prick. The really scary thing about the above family snap is; how much his missus looks like his mum

  40. HardcorePrawn

    I’ve also heard rumours that Abbott uses a UK passport when travelling, especially around Europe (no queuing up with the non-EU residents for him!).
    If true then that must be a first for any nation’s leader, and is probably worth a bit of investigation too.

  41. Wayne Turner

    I say strip him of his Australian citizenship for failing the “good character test”,and deport him back to the UK.

    DEPORT! DEPORT!

  42. leonetwo

    Rorting runs in the Abbott family. Abbott’s grandfather brought his family to Australia to escape the dangers of WWII. At the same time our fathers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins and brothers were being sent to England to fight in the same war.

    Abbott’s father joined the RAAF as soon as he was old enough, but it was almost the end of the war and he did not serve overseas. He then used his war service grant to study dentistry at Sydney Uni. He took his Australian-taxpayer-funded skills back to England where he met and married his Australian-born wife and produced Tony. The Abbotts decided to return to Australia and rorted the system so they could come back as ten-quid poms instead of paying their own way.

    Then Tony, who had never shown the slightest interest in being an Australian citizen, wanted that Rhodes scholarship. He had wanted it for a while, so much so that it was one of the two reasons he ditched his pregnant girlfriend. A married man was not eligible for either a Rhodes scholarship or the priesthood. To get that Rhodes he finally realised he had to be an Australian citizen, so there seems to have been a rush to get it done.

    Then came the priesthood. Did he ever really intend to be a priest or was it a convenient way to get free further education, complete with board and lodging. while he put off deciding what his ‘real’ job would be? Evan after leaving the priesthood he was still using people for his own advantage. When he decided he wanted an ‘ordinary’ job he didn’t go to the old CES or read the job ads in the paper, he used his Jesuit connections and asked Sir Tristan Antico for help.

    It wasn’t long before Abbott went into politics and as we have seen, once he was an MP the rorting really ramped up. Trips to the races, trips to compete in spoorting events, trips to weddings and so much more, all charged to the taxpayers, once again. Now two of the Abbott daughters are carrying on the family tradition, living off the taxpayers while they indulge themselves with, for Frances, more study and, for Bridget, a year off to travel and think about her future employment.

    Does any of this matter? I think it does. We have as PM a man who has been indulged all his life, a man raised in a family that had long rorted the system. Abbott did the same thing for his own personal gain. It speaks volumes about his character.

  43. Pingback: Why did Tony Abbott wait until he was almost 24 years old to become an Australian citizen? | Journalism Student Profile- UOW

  44. Stephen Tardrew

    The real issue here is Abbots questionable motives and his understanding of his personal impulses. It is again a matter of logic and rationalism since much of his attitudes and behavior appear completely contradictory and inconsistent with his ideology. This is an indication of someone who really does not understand consequential thinking. Science and logic are informing us of a new set of guiding principles and if they are ignored for magical thinking then the outcome is going to seem more and more irrational. Ergo the results are rejection of facts for misguided dogmatic personal opinion.

  45. 77% of Australians...

    My first thought too, Oldfart. Oedipus complex, anyone?

    As nice as it is to have a focus of our collective despising of Tones, I agree with the broader sentiment. Let’s, as thinking people, play the ball not the man. Too many important things going on in our country to focus on an Obama-style Kenyan ‘controversy’.

  46. grant

    Leontwo what bs you dribble on with. If you are entitled to a service then by all means you should take advantage of it. Next you will be saying welfare recipients are rorting the system for collecting benefits or that community groups are over-indulgent for chasing government grants. It’s called taking an opportunity when it is presented to you. This country is full whingers (plenty on this post) who complain about anyone that gets ahead in life, then bitch and moan even more because it’s the “rich peoples” fault they live a sh*t life.

  47. Dan Rowden

    This article is a gigantic yawn. It’s also embarrassingly petty.

  48. Dan Rowden

    Kaye Lee,

    If I have to be Australian to get a scholarship then I am Australian.

    Or, some things simply require formal paperwork to happen, like an application for a Rhodes Scholarship or an Australian passport to get back into the country with etc etc. How many citizens by descent have not though to formally register or establish their citizenship because they didn’t have a reason to do so? Abbott’s application for that formal recognition does not speak to his attitude towards himself as an Aussie – unless we conspiratorially and without evidence insist on making it so.

    Should we also go now and examine in minute detail the process by which the dozens of current Parliamentarians, including Penny Wong, who were foreign citizens went about their citizenship process? Should we question the level of authenticity with which they regard themselves as Australians?

  49. Dave

    Folks focus on the policies and not the person! It gets you nowhere. This does not reach or win over new people. Look at labor, this is what they did and how has it worked out for them? These sorts of articles/arguments just make you look like children in a playground.

  50. Anon E Mouse

    Dave, Abbott and gang are planning on changing the anti-discrimination laws. These changes would mean that the nasty racist lies that Bolt wrote, would be ok – no laws broken.

    Abbott appears to be happy to side with the Bolt camp when they bleat on about Indigenous people being able to self-identify, and that they change identity to gain benefit.

    This is exactly what Tones did – with his selective citizenship. It looks like others also have issues with their identity, like Eric Abetz – and no doubt many more will be identified.

    It is entirely appropriate to ridicule Abbott, Abetz etc on the way they have selectively identified for their own benefit.

    If the anti-discrimination laws get wound back, expect more such articles. No doubt some, like Bolt’s, will be written with no integrity, but they will be legally able to make up stuff surrounding identity. I can’t wait for somebody to do a number on Bolt – hehe.

  51. kathysutherland2013

    I agree with Dave. This is beginning to sound like the Liberal Party digging into Julia Gillard’s time with Slater & Gordon. Surely our standards are higher than that?

  52. Ange Kenos

    I recall when Lord Downer, as he wishes to become, had to tell his wife that it was embarrassing for the then leader of the Opposition to have a wife who was NOT then an Aussie citizen. These people do NOT care about our nation. They never joined the ADF. Never served their country except as self serving self adoring politicians

  53. Patricia Montgomery

    Yes it matters he is as foregin as my daughter is in his eyes I’m a kiwi and dad is an Australian but she is not entitled to a thing as she was born in NZ he is a hipocrete she can’t even get a student loan to study so she can better her self so she can work and pay taxes in this amazing country but yet hubby and I both pay taxes for fobs to get full government support pfft@

  54. kathysutherland2013

    That disgraceful NZ regulation was brought in by the Howard government. Nobody has seen fit to alter it, although in NZ Australians are treated the same as Kiwis.

  55. KGB16

    In truth Abbott is still a POM. Bringing back the Pommy title system shows that he is an elisist Pommy Bastard. We would be best served by sending this dickhead back to the land where he was born and where he belongs….he should have never left.

  56. Andy

    I think it is important to see the character of the person who aspires to lead their nation. They should, at the very least, love their country and put it before any other. Look at the right and their persecution of Obama, not only of his place of birth but his religion.

  57. TC

    This is really silly. Tony Abbott probably just came to Australia and lived his life as normal and when the time was right he became a citizen. He was 24, still very young. Your hatred of the man seems to know no bounds…shame on you all. Julia Gillard was a member of the SOCIALIST ALLIANCE for 17 years, Jenny Macklin was also a member. That organisation seeks to introduce socialism by stealth, ie not through a revolution. THAT is something worth research but the Lefties always said that was in her past and she WAS JUST A ‘TYPIST’ (when in reality she as a member of the executive) If this is what you guys have to stoop to, well I am glad, because you are showing yoursleves as nothing more than desperate rabble.

  58. eagoodlife

    While I, an Australian citizen by birth, living in Britain for a time, gave birth to my daughter, I immediately established her citizenship and nationality by applying to the Australian authorities. I did it because I am a proud Aussie and because I knew it might be crucial in her future, as it turned out to be. Anyone who has reached voting age and not established their citizenship and right to vote can surely have their commitment to this country questioned. It is time those who emigrated from the UK stopped seeing Australian as a colony, an extension of ‘the mother country’. Is it too much to ask? I think not.
    I am old enough to have seen many PM’s come and go – this is the worst we have ever had and are ever likely to have. Natural attrition will play out here and hopefully before he makes more havoc and brings us into further disrepute with the rest of the world, where we are now a laughing stock.

  59. eagoodlife

    Reblogged this on The Life Of Von and commented:
    Undoubtedly the worst PM we have ever had!

  60. Catherine

    According to the standards used to prosecute Andrew Bolt, this article breaches Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. It suggests that Tony Abbot isn’t a ‘true’ Australian and risks offending anyone who has changed or clarified their citizenship status from British to Australian and has then succeeded in life, arguably because they became an Australian citizen. Just sayin’.

  61. Matters Not

    That organisation seeks to introduce socialism by stealth

    Really? I didn’t know that. Have they had any successes in the last few decades? Should I be looking over my shoulder? Or perhaps under the bed?

    Or are you referring to an aircraft-design characteristic consisting of oblique angular construction and avoidance of vertical surfaces that is intended to produce a very weak radar return?

    Please explain.

  62. Anon E Mouse

    I find it interesting that although Tony’s mother renounced her Aussie citizenship he was still able to become an Australian citizen by decent.

    I didn’t know that was possible but I don’t know a lot on how to become a Australian citizen other than more straight forward ways.

  63. Matters Not

    become an Australian citizen by decent

    Abbott is not really ‘decent’ and his citizenship came by by ‘descent’. And at the time there was no ‘dissent’.

  64. Anon E Mouse

    Thank you Matters Not, for correcting my woeful spelling. I usually try to spell-check before sending – but not this time – I hit send in haste. 🙂
    I agree with you that Abbott is not really decent.

  65. Rod

    It gets even more confusing. Tony’s dad, Dick, first came to AUS with his mother on the first class only Blue Funnel liner, SS Ulysses to escape the war in Europe in 1939-40. He stayed here for 14 years, was conscripted into the RAAF and had his way paid through dentistry at Sydney Uni after the war, before heading back to England to work as a dentist under the new British National Health Sceme, where Tony was born. Remarkable that he could then use AUS £ years later to come back as a £10 Pom with his AUS wife, and two toddlers, it seems to me.

  66. mudz78

    “Which, if true, would make him a somewhat reluctant Aussie and perhaps go some way to explaining his strong admiration of the British monarchy and those anachronistic English titles he has re-introduced (without consultation with Cabinet or party room) into the Australian honours system.”

    You haven’t made a case for any of your claims. A poor attempt at sensationalist journalism. Who WOULDN”T take citizenship if it meant they could study at a prestigious university? Regardless of his reasons, Ton’y choice of citizenship was a personal one that has no relevance to any political discussion.

    Seriously, is the author a halfwit?

  67. captain51

    Something akin to an ‘economic migrant’

  68. eagoodlife

    Whether the author is a half-wit is a somewhat offensive comment in this day and age of more enlightened times! I doubt the author would have written this piece if the facts were not easy to produce but let’s not get into an Obamagate type production of Birth Certificates here. The fact that Abbott was born in London is sufficient. His choice in adult life about his citizenship is far from a personal matter once he has achieved public office. As with most of his decisions the reasons seem murky and his motivation difficult to ascertain. To take out citizenship in order to study in Britain seems very arseabout but typical!

  69. Don Winther

    And what about Joe Hocky and Cormann? That explains to me why he could so easily let Holden and Qantas go. Holden is in every real Australians blood plus 80,000 Aussies pay packets. Has Tony got his new luxury Jets yet?

  70. Simon

    ad hominem attacks are going to achieve nothing; but these ‘facts’ about his past do put interesting colour into the pallette that made the man – personally I can’t stand him because of that sickening noise that escapes his frontal orifice that apparently passes itself off as a laugh (anyone going to pull me up on the anthropomorphisation or not?)…

  71. Dan Rowden

    Anon E Mouse,

    I find it interesting that although Tony’s mother renounced her Aussie citizenship he was still able to become an Australian citizen by decent.

    Could you please provide an official source for this claim about his mother. I’m struggling to find one. Thanks.

  72. Anon E Mouse

    I stand corrected Dan Rowden, I should have said that I assumed Tony’s mother renounced her citizenship in order to take advantage of the 10 pound subsidised passage from England to Australia.

    I base this assumption on the subsidised passage not being available to Australian citizens. Surely a passport was needed to apply for such a subsidy.

  73. Brian Richard Allen (@Brian_R_Allen)

    Interesting to have stumbled upon this site.

    The psychopathic Malignant-Envy-driven self and own-culture and aow-species-loathing that’s projected here would astound but that it’s confirmation that Totalitarianism — and in its every form and by its any and every other name — communism, Marxiism, fascism, ‘Greens-ism’ Stalinism, Maoism, Whitlamism, multiculturalism, ‘PC-ism,’ ‘ALP-ism’ and islamanazism included — is a psychosis.

    And its every votary a psychotic.

    Brian Richard Allen

  74. Möbius Ecko

    And there people you have an example of right wing projection.

  75. Roswell

    I’m glad you could decipher it, Mobius.

  76. Möbius Ecko

    Quite easy Roswell. It was a lame attempt to project the Coalition and their supporters six years of the longest and biggest dummy spit in Australian political history. Take out the meaningless smoke screen of the isms, the equally puerile Age of Wonders reference and what’s left is the projection.

    Totalitarian = What the Abbott government is doing and enthusiastically condoned by his supporters to a tee.
    Votary psychotic = You could not find a better description for the very religious Abbott who injects religionisms (I can do isms as well) into just about everything and by many measures he’s borderline psychotic, ably followed by many psychotics as can be seen across the interwebs.

  77. Dal Michie

    Lucky Tony Abbott. He has been able to cherry pick two citzenships, British by birth (jus soli) and British by descent (jus sanguinas), and Australian citizenship by descent (acquired citizenship). What about the children born in Japan during the Australian Occupation of that country?

    At the ripe old age of 60, in 2008, I attempted to apply for a fifth Australian passport. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (passport division) told me that as I had none of the three ‘appropriate’ documents to prove my ‘citizenship’, I needed to apply to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to ‘prove my identity’ before DFAT would issue me with another passport.

    The three ‘appropriate’ documents were an Australian birth certificate (born in Australia), a ‘citizenship certificate’ and a ‘current’ Australian passport. Of course none of the 500 estimated Australian children born in Japan to two Australian born parents serving in Australian Territory during the occupation of Japan had an Australian certificate. We were born before the Australian Citizenship Act of 1948 was introduced (26th January 1949). We were not born in Australia and consequently were told that our birth certificates were ‘foreign’ because we were born in Japan!

    I did not have the third ‘appropriate’ document, a ‘current’ Australian passport because I could not afford to travel overseas, let alone pay for another Australian passport.

    The 2005 Australian Citizenship Act was introduced by the Howard Government. As a result of that Government’s fear of ‘foreigners’, the entitlement of Australians born overseas to Australian born parents to Ausralian citizenship by descent, dated to the time the Australian Citizenship Act of 1948 was introduced, was ignored.

    I was told I had two options to ‘prove my identity’ as an Australian through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship I was directed to apply to, before I would be issued with a fifth Australian passport. I could fill out the 118 Descent form which would have cost me over $600 and would be dated to the time I applied to DIAC to ‘prove my identity’ or I could fill in the 119 ‘proof of ‘identity’ form which only cost $55. I chose the latter because I assumed that with all the evidence I had about my Australian past, the bureacrats in that Department would understand that I had no entitlement to any other identity, nationality or citizenship.

    Unfortunately no-one in that department understood Australian history. The only category, category 2, that, supposedly, related to the situation of the Australian children born in Japan to two Australian parents born in Japan in the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces stated that we were just ‘British subject’, ‘permanent residents’ (foreign nationals) born of ‘Australian fathers’ and became citizens when we arrived on Australian shore after our parents’ service for the Australian Government.

    I was unprepared to accept an Australian citizenship certificate, at the age of 60, based on these premises. My father was a corporal in the Australian Military Forces in the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces. He had already served in the Australian army in Tarakan, Borneo during the Second World War. My mother went to Japan as a welfare worker after completing her Arts degree at Melbourne University in 1947.

    The Chifley Government gave permission for families and Australian organisations and Australian ancillary forces to join the Australian troops in Japan in 1947 because it thought this would have a ‘civilising’ effect on the Australian troops and would prevent Australian and Japanese mixing.

    None of the people born in Japan to two Australian born parents ever had any problem with our Australian identity and ‘citizenship’ before 2005. None of us had any entitlement to another identity, nationality or citizenship. In my case, both of my parents were Australian born, all of my grand-parents were Australian born, most of my great-grand parents were Australian born and some of my great-great grandparents were Australian born. I was not entitled to a Japanese identity, nationality or citizenship because I was born to Australian parents who were ‘foreign’ occupiers in Japan. I was not entitled to a British identity, nationality or citizenship because I was not born on British soil and I was not descended (through patriality) to a British father or grandfather.

    I have fought against the ludicrous Australian laws and policies relating to identity, nationality and citizenship since 2008 with little result. I have been unable to travel overseas because I am not entitled to a passport from any other country so now I am now a prisoner in Australia. I have suggested to the powers that be in DFAT and DIAC that as I do not have an Australian citizenship certificate and my birth certificate was ‘foreign’ perhaps they should deport me to the ‘foreign’ country I originated from. Never received a response to that suggestion. Why not? Of course it would be impossible for the Australian Government to find a country that would accept me as belonging to their country by birth or by descent.

    So Tony Abbott is so lucky that he has been able to have been a dual citizen for so long. I am of course assuming he renounced his British citizenship when he became a Federal minister because he would not be able to represent Australian interest if he still has an allegiance to a ‘foreign’ power like Britain.

    All of the people born in Japan to two Australian born parents serving the Australian Government in Australian Occupied Territory in Japan have been told that we have no identity, nationality or citizenship by birth or by descent and that we were only entitled to acquired citizenship from the time we arrived in Australia after our parents’ service for the Australian Government. I was a six and half year old when I arrived in Australia travelling on my mother’s Australian passport with my younger Australian sister (Australian by descent). That left me ‘without citizenship’ of any country from the time I was born to the time I arrived in Australia.

  78. eagoodlife

    What a disgraceful situation! Dal I hope you get it resolved and the bureaucrats come to their senses.

  79. Michael Taylor

    My sentiments exactly. Disgraceful, bordering on comedic.

  80. Ronald

    While I don’t usually agree with raking through someone’s past or family history to throw mud, this piece does ask a question about Tony’s habit of rooting the system for personal gain.

  81. lee

    you know what sucks about that is I was born in the same hospitial
    I went to see it in 2010 it is now a drug rehab

  82. Maureen Harris

    I am interested in the fact that Tony may, or may not have, renounced his British Citizenship.
    If he had then surely there would be a record of this.
    If no record can be produced, or found, does this then imply that Tony, has not renounced his British Citizenship and therefore has no right to be overseeing the destruction of our Australian gay of life.

  83. Andrew Eves

    For those persons equivocating as the relevance as the whether Tony Abbot has renounced his British citizenship it is totally relevant as it is illegal in Australia to hold dual citizenship and political office your total allegiance is to Australia so are there any records as to when Tony Abbott deemed to have renounced his British citizenship

  84. SS

    regardless of his dual citizenship scandal, im more concerned he can straight up ignore the Australian peoples simple request, feels like a dictatorship, thats enough for me regardless of his obvious confusion about loyalties

  85. Jenni

    What is even more interesting is that there is no record of his ever renouncing his dual citizenship. Normally that would not be an issue expect for that niggly little clause that says no dual national can hold public office. All attempts to confirm whether or not he did or didn’t renounce his British citizenship has been met with stonewalling from his department as well as a rather strange incident where people were informed that if those documents did exist then they couldn’t be produced under the FOI act as it was counter to national security. Since when has the citizenship of our PM been a matter of national security. The UK has no records of any forms being lodged either by Abbott or Australian immigration to renounce his British citizenship so one is rather left to ponder why there is so much secrecy about it. The answer seems rather obvious, he never renounced it and now it’s too late to admit that. Perhaps I’m wrong but I find it odd that they circled the wagons so quickly and FOI was informed that all requests for that information were to be passed to Peta Credlin in the PM’s office. Hmmmm curiouser and curiouser said Alice to the cat.

  86. Graham Houghton

    Of course if he hasn’t renounced his UK citizenship, it’s not just electoral fraud, it’s deception for gain, it’s subversive behaviour, it’s disloyalty to the Crown (our Head of State), misrepresentation in a job application… the list of charges, both criminal and civil that could be brought against him, is long. I’m sure we don’t need to wait for the thirty day post-election cooling-off period for someone with the know-how to organise organise a case against him and arrange for charges to be laid. Can we crowdsource it?

  87. localterrorexposed

    Rhode Scholarship is a Rothschilds baby, all our Jewish politicians have gone there. Sieg Heil israel!

  88. Halfbreeder

    abbott lied about his australian residential status to get the scholarship

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