People with two nationalities should be feted, not mistrusted

AUSTRALIA’S constitution has plenty of unfortunate clauses: the one allowing states to bar particular races from voting is especially distasteful, even though none does. But until last month few would have pointed to Section 44 as the cause of a political furore. It states that members of the federal parliament must not be “under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power”. More specifically, they must not be a “subject or citizen” of a foreign country.That seems clear enough, yet so far half a dozen members of parliament have been found to have broken the rule. Two senators resigned in July, having discovered that they were still citizens of countries from which they had emigrated as infants. The most recent MP to be rumbled, Barnaby Joyce, the tub-thumpingly patriotic deputy prime minister, is considered a citizen by New Zealand, since his father was born there. The fate of the government may hang on whether he is forced to resign (see ).