Former Australian House Leader given Maltese citizenship

Australia’s former Leader of the House John Aquilina has received a Maltese citizenship certificate from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tonio Borg.

6 May 2011, 12:00am
by Karl Stagno-Navarra

1 min read

John Aquilina (born 12 March 1950 in Malta), an Australian politician, is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Blacktown between 1981 and 1991 and the electorate of Riverstone since 1991 for the Australian Labor Party.

Between 1986 and 1988 and again between 1995 and 2003, he served in a range of ministerial portfolios including Minister for Natural Resources and Minister for Youth and Community Services in the Wran and Unsworth Labor Governments and Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Fair Trading, and Minister for Land and Water Conservation in the Carr Labor Government.

From 2003 to 2007, he was Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly. In 2007, Aquilina became Leader of the House.

He had renounced to Maltese citizenship in order to assume a political role in Australia.

More from Karl Stagno-Navarra

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He never did much in Australia.He resign before the election ,he knew he had no hope. He had the seat where there is the Maltese community and they voted for him. There was a lot of complain that over the years nothing was done in that area.

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Ara, il-Lajburisti Maltin jilhqu postijiet importanti fl-Awstalja! Jien kont nahseb li l-bravi Maltin huma kollha Nazzjonalisti! Din il-fehma gibta mill-brigati 'holier than thou' Nazzjonalisti, u minn ghorrief ohra Nazzjonalisti inkluzi dawk li ma jisthux jaghtu lilhom infushom 600 ewro + 6000 ewro ohra fis -sena' over and above' dak li jaqilghu mis-salarji taghhom. Il-Ministru ta' onfoq il-flus ta haddiehor, hasbina cwiec u mghux se nindunaw!