Opposition leader Peter Dutton has suggested he believes Australia needs changes to its migration system, including increased powers to deport people and revoke citizenship.
It comes after two nurses at Sydney's Bankstown Hospital were . One of the nurses was later identified as Ahmad Rashad Nadir, an Australian citizen and Afghan refugee.
Speaking on Sydney radio 2GB, Dutton said it was an "outrage" that "somebody like that" could become an Australian citizen, and said there should be a process to understand "where the failing in the system originated and how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again".
He said the case also highlighted limits in Australia's powers to strip people's citizenship.
"At some stage our country has to have a discussion, I think, about the way in which the whole migration system works, the people who are involved for years and years at the cost of millions of dollars in the court process, the way in which we have to pay for offshore processing — hundreds of millions of dollars a year," he said on Thursday.
"When we have somebody like this who gets through the net, obviously has breached his obligation about a loyalty to our country when he became an Australian citizen, and yet he has the ability to stay in our country. It should be of deep concern to every Australian."
Dutton's comments were criticised by Labor minister Anne Aly, who told ABC TV: "I'm a bit angry that this conversation about antisemitism has been conveniently turned into a conversation about immigration. As if somehow, the two are connected."
"I think that's a very deliberate political ploy by Peter Dutton."
So what are the conditions for revoking citizenship in Australia, and how often does it happen?
Can Australian citizenship be cancelled?
Section allows the minister to apply to a court for an order to cease a person’s Australian citizenship.
The court may make an order to cease a person’s Australian citizenship if:
- the person is aged 14 years or over
- the person is a dual-national
- the person has been convicted of one or more serious offences
- the court has imposed a period or periods of imprisonment that total at least three years or more
- the conduct the offence relates to is so serious and significant that it demonstrates that the person has repudiated their allegiance to Australia.
Serious offences are specified in the act and include certain terrorism offences, treason, espionage, foreign interference, advocating mutiny, foreign incursion and recruitment offences, and certain explosives and lethal device offences.
There are several reasons a person's Australian citizenship can be cancelled. Source: SBS News
Australian citizenship cannot be cancelled if the person holds no other citizenship as it would leave them stateless.
What is Australia's history with revoking citizenship?
Stripping or ceasing citizenship isn't common in Australia.
According to the most recent publicly available data from the Department of Home Affairs, there were no notices issued to parliament proposing citizenship cessation between December 2021 and June 2023.
Between June and December 2021, there were two notices issued.
During his time as home affairs ministerfrom 2017 to 2021, Dutton issued citizenship cessation notices to over 20 citizens.
The most common reason for citizenship being revoked
Ali Mojtahedi, principal solicitor at the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre in Sydney, said while citizenship cancellation is rare, fraud in applications is the most common reason.
"The idea behind that, of course, is you should have never had it in the first place, so parliament has taken the view that in those circumstances it should be taken away," he said.
"The second most common [reason is] when they have been convicted of certain offences, and following a sentence by a court, if the minister makes an application for the court to consider the next course, the court would then have the power to have that person's citizenship taken away from them as well."
If a person is facing their citizenship being revoked, in most cases they can appeal to the court and argue against it happening.
Ali Mojtahedi, principal solicitor at the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre. Source: Supplied
"The department does not send or consider revoking that citizenship unless they have very strong evidence," he said.
"They do their job before they send the letter to the applicant informing them if they suspect fraud or anything like that."
Depending on the person's circumstance, they may have the chance to apply for another visa while in Australia.
Could Australia's citizenship laws change?
Australian citizenship cessation laws were last significantly changed in 2020, with the passing of the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Cessation) Act 2020, but it was repealed in December 2023.
Under this act, in certain circumstances, the Home Affairs minister could determine that a person's Australian citizenship had ceased.
At the time of writing, Dutton has not outlined any specific plans or proposals for further changing powers to cancel citizenships.
But Mojtahedi said it would be difficult to change cessation powers to strip a person of their citizenship in cases like the Bankstown Hospital nurse.
"The High Court in two decisions in recent times ... said that it is problematic for the minister to revoke citizenship on [this basis] because that amounts to essentially exiling a person," he said.
"And to do that, that would be characterised as punishment. And it's not for the executive (cabinet) to be the judge or the sentencer, it's essentially taking on the role of the judiciary."
Mike Pezzullo, who was secretary of Home Affairs when the nurse received citizenship, said on Friday the High Court had set a "very high bar" for citizenship cessation and had made it clear that any such decisions should be "a matter for the judiciary as opposed to a minister exercising that discretion".
But he said there may be a case for stronger consideration of an applicant's personal views when granting citizenship.
"The administrative processes within the Home Affairs department might need to place greater weight on things like antisemitism and antisemitic ideation that has obviously gone viral globally, unfortunately quite starkly in Australia as well, since the October 2023 attacks," he said.
"Maybe greater weight has to be placed on those to deny citizenship based on views and character rather than strict security assessments about whether the person poses a direct threat to security."
