In December 2015 the Australian Citizenship  Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Act 2015 (Cth) was passed by the Commonwealth Parliament.  This controversial addition to the Australian counter-terrorism law framework provided mechanisms for dual citizens who had engaged in terrorism activities to have their citizenship cease.

In this paper I examine the parliamentary process which produced this piece of legislation.  I am interested in establishing the extent to which the public activities of the Parliament had an impact on the content of the legislation as actually passed.  In so doing, I aim to contribute to the growing literature being developed by legal scholars which focuses on Parliament as a legislative body.  I also seek to assess the extent to which the Parliament  functioned  as a deliberative forum.  This is important because if Parliament is acting in this way, it may be able to more effectively ‘balance’ the need to have a robust legal framework to protect national security against the importance of ensuring that those laws do not infringe unduly on individual rights.

Dr Dominique Dalla-Pozza joined the ANU College of Law in 2009.  In 2010  she completed her PhD titled the Australian Approach to Enacting Counter-Terrorism Laws at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public  Law at the Faculty of Laws at UNSW.  She is interested in Australian Constitutional and Public Law,  with a particular focus on the law-making activities of the Parliament.  She is also continuing to develop her expertise in the area of Australia’s  counter-terrorism laws.