'Aussie or wog'

'Aussie or a wog, you can't be both': new citizenship laws say you can, writes James Button in The Sydney Morning Herald:

Sandra Desira left Australia with her family when she was eight. Her parents had migrated to Melbourne but changed their minds after they missed their home in Malta. Their daughter grew up in Malta missing Melbourne. One day, she thought, perhaps she would return. However, in 1994, just before Ms Desira's 19th birthday, the Maltese government instructed her employer to sack her unless she renounced her Australian citizenship. Until then she had been Australian by birth and Maltese by descent. But the Maltese law barred adults from holding dual citizenship. If she wanted to keep her job, she could be only Maltese.

Even so, Ms Desira went to the Australian high commission to see if there was a way she could stay Australian. "No, mate, you've got to decide," said the front-desk officer, a Maltese. "You can be an Aussie or a wog, but you can't be both." The news devastated Ms Desira but she had no choice. She signed the form and renounced her Australian citizenship.

Tomorrow, though, when the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 comes into force, Sandra Portelli (her married name) can apply to resume her citizenship, while also staying Maltese. The change is a joy for Ms Portelli, 32, a mint worker who makes bank notes. It is also a triumph for the Southern Cross Group, which represents expatriates and has campaigned since 2000 to allow Australians to be citizens of two countries.

For Ms Portelli, who plans to obtain the necessary forms from the Australian high commission next week, a long battle is ending. At 21 she went back to Melbourne for the first time, on a holiday. "In Australia I'm a different person," she said. "The smell, the food, the people, my childhood memories - I like everything about it." In Malta "I bawl my eyes out", she said, watching documentaries about Australia. While in Melbourne she applied to resume citizenship but after a long fight the Immigration Department refused her application. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal endorsed the decision.

As elated as Ms Portelli is this weekend, her daughter, Jamie Lee, 2, is not eligible to become Australian, since the act does not extend that right to children born outside Australia to parents who have formally renounced their citizenship. Labor has promised to amend this if it wins power. Ms Portelli is looking forward to her next trip to Australia - on an Australian passport...