Fresh questions have been raised about the eligibility of federal Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis, following the discovery of an incoming passenger card from 1966, which she filled out when returning to Australia as a 10-year-old, listing her nationality as British.
Sudmalis has been under pressure to confirm her eligibility for parliament, given her mother, Valerie Pybus, was a British immigrant.
Last week Sudmalis issued a statement saying the British Home Office had confirmed that she had never held British citizenship, but she has declined to release any documents.
She has also declined to answer questions about whether or not she was ever entitled to the rights of a British citizen by descent, via her mother.
Under section 44 of Australia’s constitution, a person is prohibited from standing for parliament if they are “under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen of a foreign power”.
The British Nationality Act 1981 says a person is entitled to be registered as a British citizen through their mother if: you would have automatically become a citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies by descent if women had been able to pass this citizenship on to their children in the same way as men at the time of your birth; you would have had the right of abode in the UK and have become a British citizen on 1 January 1983 if you had become a citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies; and you’re of “good character”.
Sudmalis was born in Australia in 1955. Her mother arrived in Australia in 1951 and did not become an Australian citizen until 1989, according to Fairfax Media.
An incoming passenger card from 25 July 1966 – found in the National Archives – shows Sudmalis listed her nationality as “British” when she returned to Australia as a 10-year-old after travelling overseas.
The card shows Sudmalis, whose birth name was Hardinge, was travelling with her father, Norrie Hardinge, at the time.
When it asks her to list her nationality, and says “if British, specify country of citizenship”, Sudmalis or her father, or someone else, has written: “British. Australia.”
A spokesman for Sudmalis did not challenge the veracity of the incoming passenger card, when asked by Guardian Australia.
The spokesman also declined to answer questions about whether or not Sudmalis was ever entitled to the rights of a British citizen, and whether she had renounced such rights.
But late on Monday evening, a spokesman from the prime minister’s office provided a statement on Sudamalis’ behalf.
“The UK Home Office have confirmed to me that I do not hold and have never held British citizenship,” the statement said.
“My Australian father filled out the incoming passenger card on my behalf in 1966. He labelled my nationality as British-Australian because my mother is British.
“I did not travel on a passport of any sort for that trip to Australia.”
It is understood a British court had ruled at the time that Sudmalis could travel to Australia without a passport because her parents had recently separated.
The statement from the prime minister’s office did not say anything about whether or not Sudmalis was ever entitled to the rights of a British citizen, and whether she had renounced such rights.
Sudmalis is the member for Gilmore in New South Wales, one of the most marginal seats in the country. At the 2016 election, she suffered a 3.05% swing against her, winning by just 1,503 votes after preferences.
The citizenship fiasco embroiled its seventh MP on Saturday, when South Australian senator Nick Xenophon announced he would refer himself to the high court after discovering he was a British overseas citizen.
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