Greens leader Richard DiNatale says we need to change our constitution: ‘Section 44 is outdated, it’s a relic of the past’

Leader of the Greens Party, Richard DiNatale appeared on Sky News to discuss changing Section 44 of the constitution. Section 44 sets out restrictions on who can be a candidate for Federal parliament.

DiNatale explains: “There is this sort of inconvenient document that governs everything that we do called the Australian constitution… What’s got to happen now is absolutely crystal clear. We’re a modern multicultural nation. We need to change our constitution and make sure that everybody has the right to stand in our nation’s parliament. Section 44 is outdated, it’s a relic of the past…”

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Section 44 of the Australian Constitution reads in full:

44. Disqualification
Any person who:

is 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; or
is attainted of treason, or has been convicted and is under sentence, or subject to be sentenced, for any offence punishable under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State by imprisonment for one year or longer; or
is an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent; or
holds any office of profit under the Crown, or any pension payable during the pleasure of the Crown out of any of the revenues of the Commonwealth: or
has any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth otherwise than as a member and in common with the other members of an incorporated company consisting of more than twenty-five persons;
shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.

But subsection (iv) does not apply to the office of any of the Queen’s Ministers of State for the Commonwealth, or of any of the Queen’s Ministers for a State, or to the receipt of pay, half pay, or a pension, by any person as an officer or member of the Queen’s navy or army, or to the receipt of pay as an officer or member of the naval or military forces of the Commonwealth by any person whose services are not wholly employed by the Commonwealth.