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Graffiti vandals could lose Australian citizenship under draft laws

Xinhua, June 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Graffiti vandals could be stripped of their Australian citizenship under draft laws before parliament, legal experts have warned.

The broad nature of the Abbott government's new laws aimed at revoking the citizenship of dual-national terrorists could see those vandalising Commonwealth property stripped of their citizenship.

Anne Twomey, a professor of constitutional law at Sydney University, said the inclusion of such minor offences suggests " chaos" and inexperience in the drafting of the legislation.

"If you intentionally destroy or damage any commonwealth property, that's it, you've automatically lost your citizenship," Twomey told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

Fellow constitutional law expert Professor George Williams said the provisions in the bill, that include offenses ranging from treachery, sabotage and mutiny down to damaging or destroying Commonwealth property, are far too broad.

"It means that the stripping of citizenship would extend into categories where there's no suggestion a person is disloyal to Australia, but may have just committed what is just a minor criminal offense," Williams told the ABC on Thursday.

The bill will see people holding dual citizenship automatically renounce their Australian citizenship under section 33 of the Citizenship Act if they engage in terrorist acts, training, recruiting or financing inside or outside Australia.

Citizenship would also automatically cease if dual nationals serves in a terrorist organization.

The federal government is hoping to pass new changes to the Citizenship Act ensuring an Australian who participates in terrorism against Australia automatically forfeits their citizenship.

Williams said the government needs to immediately return to the drafting table and remove the provisions beyond the scope of what the government wanted to do.

"I think the government simply needs to redraft its bill," he said. "It needs to make sure the bill is directed only at the most serious examples of terrorism." Endi