Australia: Citizenship laws ‘not a bravado issue’ says Malcolm Turnbull

Observing the polarized debate within the Australian Cabinet over citizenship revocation, I can only wonder whether there was a similar debate behind closed doors in the Canadian Cabinet.

I suspect not. Despite the Harper government’s discipline, some glimmer of internal disagreement would likely have become known had it been major:

[Communications Minister and former Liberal party leader] Turnbull has warned that the fight against terrorism is “not a bravado issue” and emphasised the importance of safeguarding the rule of law in Australia.

The communications minister and former Liberal party leader said terrorists “want to destroy us because they hate the rule of law” and he argued a controversial proposal to strip sole nationals of their Australian citizenship raised “very big legal and practical issues”.

Turnbull’s comments provide an insight into the Coalition’s internal dispute over how to deal with the citizenship of Australians suspected of involvement in terrorism. The government has agreed to introduce a bill to give the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, the power to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals linked to terrorism, but deferred a decision on powers to deal with sole nationals after a cabinet backlash last week. Turnbull was among those cabinet critics.

“What is the essence of a democracy? Some people would say a democracy is one where the majority get to do what they want. That’s not a democracy. That’s a tyranny,” Turnbull said at a media conference in Queanbeyan on Wednesday.

“The genius of a democracy governed by the rule of law, our democracy, is that it both empowers the majority through the ballot box, and constrains the majority, its government, so that it is bound by law.”

Turnbull added: “Why does Daesh [another term for Islamic State] hate us? Why do they want to kill us? Why do they want to kill, destroy our society? They want to destroy us because they hate the rule of law.

“They hate the fact that the government has to stand up – can be stood up by citizens and held to account. They hate the fact that we have freedom of speech. They hate the fact that we are a free society governed by law not just by whatever the direction of one religious leader is from time to time.

“Our freedoms are absolutely critical and it is important that we have a debate about this but I just want to be very clear … some people like to suggest that some people are tougher on terrorism or tougher on national security than others.

“Let me say this to you – honest people, knowledgeable people, really well-informed people can have very different views about what the right measures are on national security and have very different views about the right balance between, say, citizenship and national security.”

Citizenship laws ‘not a bravado issue’ says Malcolm Turnbull | Australia news | The Guardian.