'Kwaussie' is Australia's word of the year - and lots of people are asking if anyone's heard of it

[Disir]

Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, who returns to parliament today after winning a by-election for his old seat of New England on the weekend following the dual citizenship debacle, is the inspiration behind the Australian National Dictionary Centre’s (ANDC) word of the year – “kwaussie”.

The ANDC defines the term as “a person who is a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand; a New Zealander living in Australia; a person of Australian and New Zealand descent” – an issue that rose to national prominence this year when Joyce was booted from parliament by the High Court because he had Kiwi citizenship by descent from his New Zealand-born father.

New Zealand-born former Greens senator Scott Ludlam resigned from parliament because he too was a “kwaussie”.


Read more at 'Kwaussie' is Australia's word of the year - and lots of people are asking if anyone's heard of it

Never heard of it.

 

[william the wie]

Yeah, I have about an hour and a half ago on Bloomberg daybreak.

 

[cnm]

The funny thing is that all Australians are entitled to benefits due New Zealand citizens, so according to the relevant legislation no Australians are eligible to be elected. This is too subtle for Aussies to process.