EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
AUSTRALIAN CITIZENSHIP REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
STATUTORY RULES 1983 NO.68
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs
Section 53 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 empowers the Governor-General to make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Sub-section 7(1) of the Act provides that Australian citizens and the citizens of certain other countries have the status of British subjects in Australia.
Sub-section 7(2) lists those countries and also provides that other countries may be declared by the regulations to be countries to which section 7 applies. The repealed regulation 5A of the Australian Citizenship Regulations declared that the countries listed in that regulation were countries to which section 7 of the Act applies. Those countries are countries which were formerly colonies of the United Kingdom except the Republic of Vanuatu which was formerly a condominium administered jointly by the British and French governments. Upon gaining independence those countries became members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
On 1 November 1981, Antigua and Barbuda gained independence and became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, while on 29 July 1982, the Republic of Maldives entered the Commonwealth of Nations as a special member.
The new regulation 5A adds Antigua and Barbuda and the Republic of Maldives to the list of countries already declared to be countries to which section 7 of the Act applies, thus granting citizens of those countries the status of British subjects in Australia, a status enjoyed by citizens of all other members of the Commonwealth of Nations.