Federal Court. Paragraph 34(3)(b) of Citizenship Act 2007 provided citizenship revocation could not occur if "the Minister is satisfied that the person would, if the Minister were to revoke the person's Australian citizenship, become a person who is not a national or citizen of any country". Is the question whether Applicant would become “a person who is not a national or citizen of any country” a jurisdictional fact, so that the Court can and should answer that question for itself? Is s 34(3)(b) a limitation upon, as opposed to a precondition for, the exercise of the power to revoke citizenship?
Some of the questions to the Federal Court (FCA) were as follows:
Question 1: Is the question whether, by revoking the Applicant's citizenship, he would, pursuant to s 34(3)(b) of the Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth), become “a person who is not a national or citizen of any country” a jurisdictional fact, so that the Court can and should answer that question for itself?
Question 2: Is s 34(3)(b) a limitation upon, as opposed to a precondition for, the exercise of the power to revoke citizenship?
The FCA answered those questions as follows: