https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/frydenberg-caught-out-on-citizenship-lie,12986
Facts are surfacing about Josh Frydenberg's mother's citizenship and the lie he tried to spin, writes investigations editor Ross Jones.
AS SCOMO might exclaim, if he wasn't speaking in tongues, "How good was it not to be a European Jew in 1943?"
Probably not that good, but an awful lot better than being a Jew.
The gut-wrenching tales of the horror these poor people endured under the fascists has entered the human psyche as a moment, a marker, forever to be referred to when the very worst of human nature gains supremacy.
That's what makes the Holocaust defence of Josh Frydenberg's right to be in the Australian parliament so offensive
Speaking in 2017, then Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek warned the questions about Mr Frydenberg's eligibility for Parliament were "getting into pretty disturbing territory. I mean, these people like many millions fled the Holocaust,'' she said.
The problem is that it's not the point, not the reason for Frydenberg's possible – or probable – ineligibility.
Frydenberg might yet fall to an s44, though this article has nothing to do with any such possibility. It's unlikely at best.
What this article is about is Frydenberg knowingly giving false information to the Parliament.
In his Statement in Relation to Citizenship – 45th Parliament, Joshua Anthony Frydenberg correctly noted his mother's birth details as 5 October 1943 in Budapest
When asked, under Section 3(d) of the form to list the steps he had taken to assure himself he had not 'acquired citizenship of another country by descent, marriage or other means', Frydenberg listed three reasons he had assured himself, the first of which was:
'I have retrieved documentation regarding the citizenship of my parents and grandparents from available family sources. Searches have been made of archival material available in Australia regarding my parents' and grandparents' citizenship
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In a recent article, IA pointed out a Queensland pensioner had, single-handedly and with no office staff, uncovered documentation showing Frydenberg's mother was most certainly a Hungarian citizen when she arrived in New South Wales in 1951.
No doubt about it.
Frydenberg, who is a blisteringly smart, has the grunt to demand answers from bureaucracy and has staff available to him at no personal charge, could not do this.
And this guy is in charge of the economy.
Division 137 is not the only section of the Crimes Act Frydenberg might fall foul of, but it gives an idea of how serious deliberately misleading the Commonwealth is,
137.1 False or misleading information
(1) A person commits an offence if:
(a) the person gives information to another person; and
(b) the person does so knowing that the information:
(i) is false or misleading; or
(ii) omits any matter or thing without which the information is misleading; and
(c) any of the following subparagraphs applies:
(i) the information is given to a Commonwealth entity;
(ii) the information is given to a person who is exercising powers or performing functions under, or in connection with, a law of the Commonwealth;
(iii) the information is given in compliance or purported compliance with a law of the Commonwealth.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 12 months.
So that's a lay down misère
Frydenberg told a deliberate porky to Parliament because there is no way – unless he is a compete dill, which he is not – that he did not see the same documents as Tony Magrathea before he put pen to paper.
So he knew about these when he completed his Qualification Checklist.
Lawyer Trevor Poulton threatened to bring an s44 challenge to Josh's eligibility on the grounds that, because Frydenberg's mother was a Hungarian citizen, Josh might have a right to Hungarian privileges. Fair question.
Well, our PM went ballistic, spitting righteous indignation from every orifice in his head plus one:
"I'll tell you what it's a time to draw a line on, and it's anti-Semitism. I mean, the scourge of anti-Semitic graffiti that we've seen in Melbourne just this year, it is absolutely sickening and disgraceful. And for a Holocaust denier and an anti-Semite to seek to progress that agenda by pretending to have some sort of constitutional purity on Josh Frydenberg, I'm just going to call it out for what it is. And I think Australians... I think they would share that. Anti-Semitism has no place in this country