“I’ve been voted one of Australia’s 50 national treasures. I’ve been had my face on an Australian stamp, the only non-Australian to do so, apart from the Queen, of course. It’s so, so… unreasonable,” Russell complained to the UK’s Radio Times.
Russell, 50, has been living in Australia for nearly 40 years after having moved here with his family from neighbouring New Zealand as a child in 1968. Ever since, Australia loves to claim the award-winning star as one of our own – and one of our biggest star exports.
Rusty has applied for citizenship twice recently, in 2006 and 2013, with both applications rejected. It seems the reason why is to do with a rather obscure section of Australian Immigration law, specifically affecting Kiwis.
“They changed the law for New Zealanders,” Russell said, by way of explanation.
“No matter how long you’d been in the country, if you weren’t in Australia for the majority of 2000 to 2002 – when I was particularly busy filming overseas – you can’t become a citizen.”
The clause that Rusty refers to requires that New Zealand citizens wishing to obtain Australian citizenship must have been in Australia on February 26, 2001, holding a “special class visa” – the standard Visa that’s issued to all Kiwis upon arrival in Australia, granting them permission to live and work here. Otherwise, they must have spent a period totalling at least 12 month in the two years prior to that date.
At the time Russell was busy jet-setting around the world as he filmed movies such as Mystery, Alaska – filmed in Canada, his Oscar-winning role in Gladiator, which was shot in the UK, Morocco and Malta as well as Proof of Life (where he met then-girlfriend Meg Ryan, his co-star) which was filmed in Ecuador.
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As Russell claims, he has indeed been featured on a postage stamp as part of Australia Post’s 2009 “Australian Legends Of The Screen” collection which also featured Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Nicole Kidman.
Given Rusty is clearly an Aussie icon through-and-through, we think maybe it’s time the government cut him some slack and let him make it official!
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