LIKE many people of Scottish descent worldwide, Senator Jacqui Lambie, of Tasmania in Australia, is proud of her heritage.
The 46-year-old former soldier has not only never denied that her father was Scottish, she has actually gone out of her way to declare her pride in her Scottish ancestry.
The problem in Australia just now is that a whole raft of court cases and media revelations have cast doubt on whether Lambie and a number of other parliamentarians should hold elected office as the constitution states that no-one with dual citizenship can be in the Canberra parliament.
The question is whether Lambie’s father renounced his British citizenship. Only last month, former National Party leader Fiona Nash was kicked out of parliament by the high court because she inherited British citizenship through her Scottish father.
Lambie is the latest member of the federal parliament to be caught up in the dual citizenship crisis which started in July, since when six federal members of parliament have been found to be in breach of section 44 of the constitution as dual citizens.
Former senate president Stephen Parry last week quit as a Liberal Party senator for Tasmania after he was found to be a British citizen as well as Australian.
Lambie said yesterday: “I am proud of my Scottish ancestry and my father is too. I found out more about his family background in recent weeks as I wrote my autobiography ahead of its publication next year. His father, my grandfather, came to Australia to enlist in the army in fact. As far as I’m concerned, all their affairs are in order – as are mine.
“I’m happy to put on record that I’m satisfied that my parents are both Australian citizens and I have no concerns about me being a dual citizen because of where they were born or came from, in the case of my father, as an infant.”
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