An Australian government minister resigned because, unbeknownst to him, his mother, of Italian descent, would have applied for Italian citizenship for both in a country where the constitution prohibits eligibility for foreigners. The shocking announcement by Resource Minister Matt Canavan follows the recent resignation of two senators who discovered they were never 'technically' elected because they had dual citizenship. In fact, the Australian constitution establishes that a "citizen of a foreign power" is not eligible to be elected to parliament. Canavan said his mother, Maria Canavan, contacted him last week to tell him he might be Italian. And it did so after the outcry caused by the resignation of Green Party deputy leaders Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters born in New Zealand and Canada respectively. The woman applied in 2006 to the Italian Consulate in Brisbane to acquire Italian citizenship and, said Matt Canavan, who is 25 years old and has never been to Italy, “it seems that she made a request for me too, to become an Italian citizen ". Canavan specified that he had asked for a legal opinion to know if “the registration as an Italian citizen without my consent is valid under Italian law.
Photo The morning Bulletin