PNG-born Australians fear becoming stateless despite years calling Australia home

Updated

Until five years ago, Marianna Luckie always believed she was Australian, born in 1957 to one Australian parent in an Australian territory.

Key points: People born in Papua prior to independence acquired Australian citizenship at birth

But most of them automatically lost citizenship when PNG became independent in 1975

Despite living in Australia for decades, many have been told they are technically stateless

Her mother Frances was from Papua New Guinea and her father, John (Jack) Stanley Luckie, was an Australian army soldier stationed in External Territory of Papua during World War I.

She has spent most of her life calling Australia home, having moved to the country with an Australian passport, but when she applied for a new passport five years ago to travel for work, she was told she might not be a citizen.

"It was terrible. There were times that I broke down into tears," Ms Luckie told the ABC's Pacific Beat program.

Technically, people born in Papua prior to independence acquired Australian citizenship at birth.

But most of them automatically became PNG citizens and lost their Australian status when PNG became independent in 1975 — even if they still had Australian passports, or were eligible for citizenship through their family ties.

Ms Luckie said she was eventually granted citizenship after writing directly to the then-immigration minister.

"My father fought for this country … he would be turning over in his grave if he knew that our citizenship would be taken away from us," she said she told the minster at the time.

"It also raised the question in my mind that everybody who was born in PNG [prior to independence] must be in the same position.

"There must be thousands of us."

Fears 'the threat of deportation is really real'

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) said it was unable to provide statistics as to how many people may be in the same citizenship situation, or whether anyone born to an Australian parent in pre-Independence PNG had ever been deported from Australia.

"Non-citizens who wish to remain in Australia lawfully are required to have a valid visa," a spokesperson said, adding people eligible for citizenship by conferral "simply need to lodge an application" per the requirements on their website.

The ABC has spoken to several other people who said they had to prove their citizenship, and others who were concerned they would not be able to confirm their status, despite decades living and working in Australia.

Western Australia resident Careen — who did not want to use her full name as she was worried "the threat of deportation is really real" — said she believed she was technically stateless.

Careen was born in Port Moresby in 1975 to two Australian citizen parents, who were working in PNG at the time.

She said she did not have her original birth records from PNG — as her family came over to live permanently in Australia at three months old — and had so far been unable to gather the documentation needed to prove her citizenship.

"I now need to travel to PNG in order to obtain a new birth certificate, but that's become problematic because my [Australian] passport has expired, and in order to apply for a new passport, I need a birth certificate," she said.

Retiree Jon Womersley, who was born in Lae in 1948, only realised his citizenship was in jeopardy in 2013, when he was 65 years old.

"I was told that it was uncertain, there was a possibility that I might have ended up as a stateless person," he said.

Descendants of Nancy Bird-Walton face uncertainty

Queensland resident Joan Bird realised she could be in trouble when her siblings were told they needed to apply for citizenship by conferral before they could get a new passport.

Their father John is a decorated navy veteran from Australia and their mother, Mary, was a Papua New Guinean woman.

And their aunt was aviation pioneer and Australian legend Nancy Bird-Walton.

Joan's sister Catherine went into hiding after being told she was ineligible, and said she was told by DHA she could be deported — something DHA denied.

After the story of the Birds was published in various Australian newspapers, Federal MP Warren Entsch told Fairfax there was no intention of deporting the siblings.

He said the group was granted citizenship by mistake.

Joan, who also goes by the name Vitoula, left PNG in February 1975 just months before independence.

"I've worked and lived here [Australia] pretty much since then, so all my life, paid my taxes, voted, done everything that I've needed to do," she said.

She said she was granted an Australian citizenship certificate in 1985, ten years after independence, as were her siblings.

So when a letter from DHA, sighted by the ABC, confirmed there was a "possible loss of citizenship", Joan said it was "daunting" to know she would have to complete a costly application or fight it.

Joan and her family are currently talking to lawyers for a possible class action or legal challenge, and said she was "trying to rally troops" so others in her situation could be "one voice".

Australian passports do not equal citizenship

The ABC has spoken to others who say the refuse to apply for, or prove, their citizenship, including Queensland resident John Rolfe.

"I think the whole situation is absolutely ridiculous, and I refuse to apply for something that should just be an automatic right," Mr Rolfe, who was born in PNG in 1950 to two Australian parents, said.

"It just defies logic."

Many of the people who spoke to the ABC said they were shocked to learn their status was in question, as they had always travelled on an Australian passport.

But University of Sydney law professor Helen Irving said that there is a difference between citizenship and holding a passport.

"Holding an Australian passport is generally a way of confirming Australian citizenship, but it isn't in and of itself definitive of citizenship," Dr Irving said.

In July, ABC Radio spoke to several Australian passport holders who had to prove their citizenship before being able to renew their passports, forcing some to cancel or re-book holidays.

At the time, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said "long-standing law requires DFAT to be satisfied of a person's citizenship before issuing a passport, including each time it issues a new passport to a person with a current or expired passport".

The legal confusion is made worse by the fact that holding dual citizenship was illegal in PNG until 2016, meaning some people could become stateless without their Australian citizenship.

"They effectively said if you had that connection to mainland Australia you could opt to take Australian citizenship over Papuan citizenship," citizenship lawyer Professor Kim Rubenstein said.

Professor Rubenstein is a citizen law expert at the Australian National University and has fought similar cases in court, including a landmark 2005 High Court case that unsuccessfully argued a PNG-born man, Amos Ame, was entitled to Australian citizenship by birth.

Following another case run by Professor Rubenstein, the law was changed to allow people with at least one Australian mainland-born parent to apply for citizenship by conferral — but many may not know they need to go through the process.

A statement from DHA said in some cases the person may be unaware that they ceased to be an Australian citizen, and "when the Department becomes aware of such cases it works with the individual to regularise their migration status in Australia and to subsequently lodge an application for Australian citizenship".

Topics: immigration, community-and-society, papua-new-guinea, australia, pacific

First posted