Section 44 of the Constitution sets out restrictions on who can be a candidate for federal parliament. Five subsections make clear what disqualifies people, but its article one that tripped up the two Greens, government minister Matt Canavan, One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts and deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.
It rules out anyone with 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 citizen of a foreign power.”
The general idea being that you need to give yourself wholeheartedly to your country and not have any mixed allegiance, Professor Anne Twomey, a constitutional law expert at the University of Sydney, told SBS World News.