18 Facts About Australian citizenship

The primary law governing nationality regulations is the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, which came into force on 1 July 2007 and is applicable in all states and territories of Australia.

Individuals born in the country after that date receive Australian citizenship at birth if at least one of their parents is an Australian citizen or permanent resident.

Generally, nationality refers a person's legal belonging to a nation state and is the common term used in international treaties when referring to members of a state; Australian citizenship refers to the set of rights and duties a person has in that nation.

Australian citizenship identity was tied to British heritage and Anglosphere cultural characteristics.

The Australian citizenship colonies emulated this system in their own naturalisation legislation, which was enacted in all local legislatures by 1871.

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The other Australian citizenship colonies did not adopt this in legislation but in practice, women who married foreigners were automatically stripped of British subject status throughout Australia.

The Federal Council of Australasia, created in 1885, consisted of four Australian citizenship colonies along with Fiji and was a first attempt at forming a unified governing body better able to face external threats.

Australia enacted the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 to create its own Australian citizenship, which came into force on 26 January 1949, shortly after the British Nationality Act 1948 became effective throughout the Empire on 1 January 1949.

Australian citizenship Parliament did not pass similar legislation addressing this event, leaving only common law to apply.

The 1973 amendment renamed the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 to the Australian Citizenship Act 1948; the anniversary of this event has been celebrated since 2001 as Australian Citizenship Day.

Australian citizenship citizens remain Commonwealth citizens in British law and are still eligible to vote and stand for public office in the UK.

Territorial citizens who had previously been barred from automatic right of permanent residence on the Australian mainland were granted that entitlement in 1984, and the general residence requirement for acquiring citizenship was relaxed in that year as well.

Children born in the country since then are only granted Australian citizenship by birth if at least one parent is a citizen or permanent resident.

Former Australian citizens born in Papua before independence seeking to resume citizenship cannot reacquire that status by descent.

Since 2007, Papua New Guinean citizens who lost Australian citizenship on independence but have a parent born on the Australian mainland can apply for a special resumption of citizenship.

Individuals born in the country since that date receive Australian citizenship at birth if at least one parent is a citizen or permanent resident.

Former citizens may subsequently apply for nationality restoration, provided that they would have been subject to hardship had they not renounced Australian citizenship, or were automatically deprived of their Australian citizenship before 2002.

Citizens of Papua New Guinea who lost Australian citizenship on independence in 1975 but have a parent born on the Australian mainland have been able to apply for a special resumption of citizenship since 2007.