So....Nominations For New Zealander of the Year Are Open

On Monday, it was dramatically revealed that Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce—known for hat-wearing, dog-threatening, and leading the National Party—is a New Zealand citizen. This month, nominations for the New Zealander of the Year award opened. Opportunities like this don't come around all that often, and Redditors are encouraging people to vote for Joyce in the poll.

You'll be aware that the past months have seen numerous Federal politicians caught out by Section 44 of the constitution and forced to resign from their positions.
And the trigger for all this, former Western Australian Greens Senator and surprise Kiwi Scott Ludlam, is theoretically Joyce's rival for the award. But we'd argue Joyce, who managed to not only infiltrate Australia's Federal Parliament but also make his way into its inner sanctum by becoming a cabinet minister, is slightly more deserving.

It turns out the country boy from Tamworth, who literally leads a political party called the "Nationals", was an imposter all along—who knows how much influence his secret allegiance to New Zealand has had on his parliamentary career; was there a patriotic agenda to all that floor-crossing?

Given the New Zealand High Commission has confirmed that Joyce is definitely a citizen of Aotearoa, let's take a closer look at the New Zealander of the Year criteria:

The Award vaguely states that its ideal candidates "are those inspirational New Zealanders who are achieving extraordinary things and making a positive difference to you and the lives of others."

Previous winners include director Taika Waititi and former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw. Both have contributed significantly to Kiwi culture, but neither has managed to single handedly obliterate what remained of the Australian Federal Government's credibility, or put its slim parliamentary majority under threat. Arguably, Joyce's actions have been making New Zealand's government look really good in comparison for years now. Which might be considered an incredibly patriotic and selfless act.

Honestly? He might be in with a chance.

It's looking like the citizenship saga is set to continue, with Joyce refusing to resign from his cabinet position—despite colleague Matthew Canavan, also found to hold dual citizenship, doing so immediately in July.

Alongside Canavan, Scott Ludlam, Larissa Waters and Malcolm Roberts, Joyce has been referred to the High Court in order to have his parliamentary eligibility clarified. Malcolm Turnbull insists that he'll be sticking around—but the wording of Section 44, you've got to admit, is pretty clear.

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