Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos sought legal advice about his citizenship status three days after insisting he was not a Greek citizen.
Despite making a statement saying he has never held Greek citizenship following a Daily Mail Australia report, Senator Sinodinos obtained the advice of a Sydney law firm.
The federal cabinet minister and Liberal Party altered his Statement of Registrable Interests to include the pro bono legal advice he received from Arnold Bloch Leibler.
Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos (pictured) sought legal advice about his citizenship status three days after insisting he was not a Greek citizen
Senator Sinodinos altered his Statement of Registrable Interests to include the pro bono legal advice he received from Arnold Bloch Leibler (pictured)
‘Arnold Bloch Leibler (Lawyers) provided me with pro bono legal advice as part of the due diligence I conducted to ensure there was no question regarding my citizenship status,’ he wrote on August 24.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Senator Sinodinos in regards to the legal advice obtained and asked whether he wishes to update his statement on his citizenship.
Under Greek law, the child of a mother or father born in Greece ‘acquires Greek citizenship by birth’.
In his maiden speech to the Senate in November 2011, the Industry Minister paid tribute to his late parents Dionysos and California Sinodinos, who hailed from the Greek island of Cephalonia.
Cabinet minister Arthur Sinodinos is the fourth cabinet minister to be under citizenship cloud
The NSW Liberal senator has declined to say if he renounced his Greek citizenship by descent
The law in Greece gives the child of a Greek mother or father automatic citizenship by descent
However, when asked by Daily Mail Australia, the Liberal minister’s spokesman declined to say if the New South Wales senator, born in Newcastle north of Sydney in 1957, had renounced any dual Greek citizenship
‘The minister was born in Australia and has never taken Greek citizenship,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
The spokesman declined to answer questions on whether Senator Sinodinos holds dual Greek citizenship through his parents, which would make him ineligible to sit in federal parliament under section 44 of the Australian constitution.
State of origins: Arthur Sinodinos (left) and his cabinet colleague Barnaby Joyce (right) are under a citizenship cloud
‘We are happy to stand by our statement,’ he said.
After Daily Mail Australia published the story, Senator Sinodinos released a statement saying that he had never held Greek citizenship.
‘Categorically, I am not a dual citizen,’ he said.
‘I have never held Greek citizenship. My citizenship status has never been in question.
‘I have recently confirmed with the Government of Greece that I have never held Greek citizenship.
‘I was born in Newcastle and have lived all my life in Australia.’
However, the Greek Embassy says the children of Greek parents get citizenship as an ‘inherent right’.
‘In accordance with Greek Law, the Greek citizenship is an inherent right of persons born to a parent who is a Greek citizen,’ its website says.
‘As such, Greek consular authorities do not ‘grant Greek citizenship’.’
Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce announced he was a dual New Zealand citizen from having a Kiwi father
Nationals deputy Fiona Nash last week discovered she was a dual British citizen by descent
Matt Canavan resigned as resources minister in July after learning he was a dual Italian
His NSW Liberal Senate colleague Concetta Fierrvanti-Wells, who is also a minister, told Daily Mail Australia she renounced her dual Italian citizenship in July 1994.
Unlike Senator Sinodinos, she provided documentation to show she no longer held Italian citizenship through having Italian parents.
Nicholas Venizelakos, who practises as a barrister in Athens and as a solicitor in Melbourne, said it was compulsory for Greek migrants to register their children’s births with the Greek consulate, from the 1950s until the 1980s.
The Venizelakos Lawyers and Notaries principal, who has 30 years’ legal experience in Australia and Greece, said it was very likely that Senator Sinodinos’ late parents registered their son’s birth to avoid incurring a fine from the Greek government.
‘He maybe didn’t know about it,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
‘Sometimes, there are situations where the kids, they don’t know that they have been registered as a Greek citizen.
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (left) provided documentation to show she renounced her dual Italian citizenship in July 1994. Arthur Sinodinos (centre) maintains he was never Greek.
Arthur Sinodinos was sworn in as Industry Minister in January 2017 by Governor-General Peter Cosgrove
‘It was compulsory the Greek migrants, where they came here, they were obliged within three months from the date of their birth of their children to register them at the Greek consulate.’
Mr Venizelakos said this situation had happened ‘frequently not regularly’ in Australia during the 1950s when Senator Sinodinos was born.
‘Many Greeks didn’t know that their parents registered their birth in Greece and they had Greek nationality,’ he said.
Greek citizenship can only be revoked by a minister in Greece, and parents can register the births of their children at any time after the three-month grace period.
This makes Senator Sinodinos the fourth Turnbull Government cabinet minister to be under a dual citizenship cloud during the past four weeks.
Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan quit as resources minister in late July after discovering his mother had applied for Italian citizenship on his behalf in 2006, when he was 25.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce revealed he was a dual New Zealand citizen by descent, from having a Kiwi-born father.
Larissa Waters quit as a Greens senator in July after learning she was a dual Canadian citizen
Scott Ludlam resigned as Greens senator in July after finding out he was a dual New Zealander
However the Tamworth-born Agriculture Minister has declined to resign as Nationals leader and from cabinet.
His Nationals deputy Fiona Nash revealed two days later that she was a dual British citizen by descent from having a Scottish father, but like her boss she hasn’t quit the cabinet.
The High Court is determining if Mr Joyce and his Nationals colleagues Nash and Canavan are eligible to remain in federal parliament.
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon has announced he is a dual British citizen by descent
Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters quit as Greens senators in July after learning they were dual citizens of New Zealand and Canada, respectively.
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts’ own party referred him to the High Court last week to decide if he was a dual British citizen when he nominated as a candidate during the 2016 federal election.
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon confirmed at the weekend he is a dual British citizen by descent because his father Theo Xenophou hailed from Cyprus, which was a British colony when his son was born in 1959.
However, he has declined to resign from the Senate as the High Court considers whether he can stay in parliament.
Senator Sinodinos resigned as an Abbott government minister in December 2014 after he was called as a witness to help the Independent Commission Against Corruption investigate infrastructure company Australian Water Holdings.
The ICAC earlier this month announced they had made no adverse findings against Senator Sinodinos.
The Liberal Party powerbroker, who had previously been former prime minister John Howard’s chief-of-staff, returned to the ministry in January 2017.