What is required; is that all candidates for election to any parliament in Australia must first pass a competency test of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution before they can even nominate for election.

Dear Referundemdrivensocienty,

Why, do you deny the rights and intelligence of the voters to choose the person that represents them best? If anyone is to test a candidate, then it's their potential electors.

A candidate's only allegiance should be to the people who elected him/her, not to the Commonwealth of Australia or its constitution!

That would be fine Yuyutsu, provided the electors know enough about the person they are voting for.

We are no longer living in villages, electing tribal councils from people well known. Most are voting for people they know only vaguely, & many of those, like the Greens, try to keep their less popular objectives well hidden from the voters. They know damn well, many would never vote for them if the truth were known.

The same goes for foreign citizens with dual passports, or still holding onto their known foreign citizenship.

The ruling is a bit tough on some who had no idea they had any right to foreign citizenship, but better they lose, than we continue with any with a leaning to any foreign power, or controlling religion.

Hey Paul1405,
I actually support the Greens in an audit. (That'd be a first)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-01/do-we-need-a-citizenship-audit-and-what-would-it-look-like/9106982

Why is it so hard to get to the bottom of this?
If this was a matter of national security; could they actually be this incompetent?
Doesn't ASIO check the backgrounds of our politicians?
Seriously WTF?

Dear Hasbeen,

Regrettably indeed we no longer live in villages, yet the Australian electoral system is still based on the idea that we do.

By all means, the electoral system should be adjusted and one possibility is to introduce virtual-villages of people who think alike: to have a seat in parliament, collect a certain number of supporters (it's a variation on proportional representation).

The village (physical or virtual) should be able to replace its representative at any time (though for a virtual village this would be very difficult to implement without electronic voting). Also, a village could take whatever measures it finds necessary in order to ensure that its candidate is sincere and has no hidden agenda.

If despite knowing their candidate well enough, a village leans towards a foreign power or whatever, then it should be able to send the candidate that will best represent their views.