December 4, 2017
With MPs of all political persuasions being caught out lately by Section 44 (i) of the Constitution, Member for Maranoa David Littleproud wants to assure his constituents that he’s dinky-di.
Section 44 (i) states that any person who “is under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or 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”.
So far, seven MPs or Senators have been adjudged by the High Court, and a narrow vote on Wednesday just stopped another nine possible referrals.
Mr Littleproud said he was born in Chinchilla and was as Australian as “lamingtons, cricket during the summer and the native Gidgee tree peppering the Outback landscape”.
That sounds pretty ridgy-didge to us …
“Apart from a grandfather from Sydney, which I don’t hold against him during State of Origin clashes, my parents and other grandparents were all born in Southern Queensland – from Chinchilla, Dalby to Goondiwindi and Toowoomba,” Mr Littleproud said.
