The Coalition government’s assault on citizenship has been one of the more ironic badges of honour worn by this ostensibly conservative and patriotic collective. You’d think that if anything was to be held sacred, the indissoluble tie between sovereign and citizen would be it.
However, that bond of nationality has proved as pliable as any of the other fundaments of society in this government’s hands, honoured for nothing more than its usefulness as a weapon in the wars of ideology.
So the great citizenship clearance sale, the only thing Peter Dutton really, actually achieved in his long reign as minister of Home Affairs. Stripping people of their citizenship and deporting them is electorally popular, the type of vindictive authoritarianism that people always love until it’s being used against them.
Here’s an example, one that’s made news overseas as a metaphor for the increasingly stark difference between Australia’s international reputation and that of our closest neighbour:
Suhayra Aden was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia with her family at age six, becoming a dual citizen. In 2014 she flew to Syria to become an “ISIS bride”. That was a bad idea, one made by a sadly large number of young women from around the world. Aden ended up marrying two foreign jihadis and had two children. The defeat of Islamic State rendered them detritus of a godforsaken war.
In February, Aden tried to cross the border into Turkey but was detained as a suspected terrorist. Whether she had engaged in any terrorist activities herself, or been a passive participant on the wrong side, is simply unknown. Whether she remains an adherent of radical Islamic ideology or presents a danger to society is also unknown. That’s not to say she doesn’t, nor that she does. Uncomfortable, but important to record.
Australia has revoked Aden’s citizenship, refusing to contemplate allowing her to ever return to the country in which she has spent most of her life and to which she is most obviously attached.
Our Citizenship Act allows for discretionary revocation by the minister in cases where the person has engaged in war or terrorist activity against Australia, or committed serious crimes. Under Dutton, that power has been exercised almost uniformly whenever possible.
There have been frequent pushes from within the Coalition to extend the revocation power to all citizens, but for now it can only be used on people who have a second citizenship (so they do not become stateless).
With Aden having had her Australian citizenship removed, eyes turned to New Zealand, the country of her birth. This week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed she will be taken in there: “New Zealand has not taken this step lightly. They are not Turkey’s responsibility, and with Australia refusing to accept the family, that makes them ours.”
Ardern’s closing words are a statement of both the obvious and of an axiom of conventional international law. It has always been mostly accepted by most countries that each is responsible for its own citizens, for better or worse. The status of statelessness is treated as an unacceptable (albeit not infrequent) outcome and, as members of the global community, each nation must look after its own messes.
In the case of Aden and her children, New Zealand is honouring the convention, picking up the pieces of the tragic — and potentially dangerous — prospect that she presents. By contrast, Australia has refused to take up its own burden.
From a foreign perspective, it looks like nothing more than childish selfishness. Of course, Aden is a risky proposition for whichever country takes her in; it would be foolish to make a blithe assumption about her either way. However, taken in she must be. She is a human being. Her children are too.
No question of blame attaches to this equation. It doesn’t matter why Aden became a fan girl of IS and made the terrible choice that will define the rest of her life. By refusing to take responsibility for her now that she needs to come home, Australia has refused to take responsibility for itself.
It’s quite a thing to look back at Australia’s remarkable history as an advocate for human rights on the international stage, then consider how assiduously we have been trashing that legacy in more recent times.
So much meaning, emotion resides within a single word . . . “Humane”. In today’s Australia it means, lost, devalued. In New Zealand forgiveness, a second chance, fairness. ” Australia has refused to take responsibility for itself”.
Thanks. Australian citizenship is becoming worthless, another terrible legacy of our government.
Yes what’s new? LNP Policy dictates Rule of Law only applies if it gives me what I want, whether it be international or domestic.
No a fan of the LNP but I think the ALP has been happy to wave this type of poisonous legislation through. It worries me that we are getting very comfortable with vilifying and alienating individuals and groups because the government tells us that they are a threat to our safety, something that most of can’t make a rational judgement on for lack of information. The internal division and ugly parochialism engendered by the COVID panic would have been less virulent had we not had 20 plus years of preparation.
The government and nation have a blind spot while indulging in cheap nativist point scoring under the guise of security and citizenship.
Presently in detention in NZ, is the Australian Tarrant, who committed a terrorist act when shooting 51 people at a mosque in Christchurch; he is an Australian citizen but no talk of stripping him of citizenship and barring his return to Australia after completing his sentence?
Further, far right, ‘eco-fascists’ (obsessed about identity, immigration, overpopulation etc. ergo the environment and national identity) whether Breivik or Tarrant, they often share same ideology, literature, targets and tactics with ISIS.
All of the latter would have come across the old hoax ‘The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion’ and now with modern day equivalent being ‘Soros’ (supposedly encouraging Moslem migration to dilute Christian European culture and/or simply representing Zionism or Judaism; a successful political PR strategy in Hungary).
Thank you for bringing the plight of these women and children to the attention of the public again. Dutton lied by saying that we would not bring them back from refugee camps as he would not risk lives. A Save the Children rep explained on the radio just weeks later that America had offered to repatriate them to Turkey as they were picking up their citizens. This was under Trump! She explained that NGOs are busy enough without having the strain of supporting citizens from wealthy countries. Children in camps at risk of being radicalised. (Future terrorist angry with Australia anyone?). Bring them back and try and gaol them here if necessary but don’t leave them stateless.