The PJCIS report on the proposed change to the Citizenship Act, which would strip dual nationals fighting overseas of their Australian citizenship without conviction, has been released on Friday 4th September. Australia’s leading constitutional lawyers, human rights groups, ethnic community organisations, refugee organisations and human rights commissioner Gillian Triggs have all objected to part or all of the dual national bill as it was drafted.

In his statement, Stephen Blanks, President of the NSW CCL, notes:

"The committee’s first recommendation that the removal of citizenship without conviction would only apply to those offshore significantly cuts down the scope of what the government was trying to do. The way it was drafted it would have applied to significant numbers of people on shore so that is significant but the fact remains citizenship stripping is an inappropriate punishment."

"If people commit a criminal offence it doesn’t mean they should be deprived of their nationality or family should be deprived of their nationality. They should be brought to justice so the whole idea to use citizenship as a tool is really going to do nothing about the threat of terrorism."

Blanks went on to say that stripping people and their families of citizenship would only alienate them from the Australian community and be “counterproductive in our struggle against terrorism. It should not go ahead but it is much less dangerous than the government had originally proposed.”

Article: Convict first before dual nationals in Australia lose citizenship

Source: The Guardian