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I Search for Rainbows
Dec. 8th, 2017 11:59 am(This title is one of four volumes of autobiography. Four! Mine would barely fill a pamphlet.)
The Australian National Dictionary Centre has named its word of the year for 2017: kwaussie. As in, someone who has dual citizenship of New Zealand (a Kiwi) and Australia (an Aussie). It makes no sense, not least because it should be kiwaussie, shouldn't it? But that doesn't really matter as it is an entirely made up word that has never been uttered in the entire span of human history. I've never heard it before. I don't know where they got it from. I know why they picked it though: the Citizenship Saga.
While the rest of the world is on fire, Australia's politicians have been entertaining themselves for the last six months with the most spectacular piece of nonsense. It is a long and complicated story revolving around section 44 of the Australian constitution, which prohibits a member of Australia's parliament from having dual citizenship. Only the way it's worded also prohibits members from being entitled to dual citizenship. Not taking it up, you understand. Just being entitled to have it. And that's something of a problem, because (a) Australia's politicians are idiots and (b) it puts them at the mercy of the citizenship laws of other countries. So, for example, some countries allow people to claim citizenship by descent if their grandparents came from there, some if their parents came from there, some if you marry someone entitled to be a citizen, some if you were born there while your Australian parents were passing through. Which would be fine if Australia's politicians could follow a rule, but they can't. For the last few months, barely a week has gone by without one federal political or other being declared eligible to be a citizen of somewhere else. A Greens senator: surprise Canadian! The extremely Scottish Labor senator: surprise Lithuanian! The senator whose mum decided to take up her Italian citizenship and filled in the forms to make him Italian without telling him: surprise Italian!
And, of course, the biggest surprise of them all is that the Deputy Prime Minister and most Australian man in the world, Barnaby Joyce, is a surprise kwaussie. New Zealand promptly nominated him to be New Zealander of the Year. Well played.
The Australian National Dictionary Centre has named its word of the year for 2017: kwaussie. As in, someone who has dual citizenship of New Zealand (a Kiwi) and Australia (an Aussie). It makes no sense, not least because it should be kiwaussie, shouldn't it? But that doesn't really matter as it is an entirely made up word that has never been uttered in the entire span of human history. I've never heard it before. I don't know where they got it from. I know why they picked it though: the Citizenship Saga.
While the rest of the world is on fire, Australia's politicians have been entertaining themselves for the last six months with the most spectacular piece of nonsense. It is a long and complicated story revolving around section 44 of the Australian constitution, which prohibits a member of Australia's parliament from having dual citizenship. Only the way it's worded also prohibits members from being entitled to dual citizenship. Not taking it up, you understand. Just being entitled to have it. And that's something of a problem, because (a) Australia's politicians are idiots and (b) it puts them at the mercy of the citizenship laws of other countries. So, for example, some countries allow people to claim citizenship by descent if their grandparents came from there, some if their parents came from there, some if you marry someone entitled to be a citizen, some if you were born there while your Australian parents were passing through. Which would be fine if Australia's politicians could follow a rule, but they can't. For the last few months, barely a week has gone by without one federal political or other being declared eligible to be a citizen of somewhere else. A Greens senator: surprise Canadian! The extremely Scottish Labor senator: surprise Lithuanian! The senator whose mum decided to take up her Italian citizenship and filled in the forms to make him Italian without telling him: surprise Italian!
And, of course, the biggest surprise of them all is that the Deputy Prime Minister and most Australian man in the world, Barnaby Joyce, is a surprise kwaussie. New Zealand promptly nominated him to be New Zealander of the Year. Well played.