Luke Hartsuyker is Not a Dutch Citizen

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Luke Hartsuyker has confirmed what he’s been telling many for months, he is not a Dutch citizen.

While most accepted the Federal Member for Cowper’s explanation of his citizenship, some chose not to believe it, including a Labor spokesperson in Bellingen.

In August, Andrew Woodward, the president of the ALP’s Bellinger Valley branch questioned Mr Hartsuyker’s eligibility to sit in Federal Parliament.

Although being born in Muswellbrook, the Nationals member explained that he was ‘the son of a Dutch migrant’, however never applied to become a Dutch citizen and under their laws, had surpassed the period to be eligible for application.

The explanation appeared not to be enough after Prime7 Local News ran a story on November 6 with Mr Woodward questioning the Cowper MP’s citizenship status once again.

In the story, Mr Woodward claimed that Luke Hartsuyker was “making it up as he goes along”.

Triple M can confirm that Luke Hartsuyker has a letter from the Dutch Embassy confirming that he is not a Dutch citizen, nor has he been at any time during his time as MP.

According to the correspondence from the Consul-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it states that as Mr Hartsuyker has not lived outside of Australia from 1985 to 1995, he automatically lost his Dutch nationality on 1 January 1995.

It continues on to say that "it is concluded that you are currently not in the possession of Dutch citizenship".

Luke Hartsuyker first became the Federal Member for Cowper in November 2001.

Mr Woodward was contacted for comment on Tuesday. Late last night, he responded saying, "Luke Hartsuyker should apologise to the electorate for the four month delay, which again showed his disrespect of the electorate and his contempt for the principles of accountability".

6 December 2017




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