Italy established electorates in their Senate for the Italian Diaspora in 2001. They divided the world outside of Italy into the districts of Europe, South America, Central/North America and the rest of the world which includes Australia. Consequently Italian citizens not currently residing in Italy have representation.

There is a discussion paper on this by Elisa Arcioni titled: Representation for the Italian diaspora [pdf]. Italy has fairly stringent citizenship requirements, demanding that a permanent resident be in Italy for ten years. Arcioni compares this to New Zealand where permanent residents can vote. Australia is somewhere in the middle with its citizenship requirements though recent bills and political discussion have been on making the requirements tighter and more stringent to Australian citizenship.

The legislative and constitutional reforms to pass diaspora electorates in the Senate were largely opposed by several Italian parties though their stance softened enough that there was near unanimous agreement on the issue. The political effect was almost immediate as the diaspora electorates ended up deciding the balance of power in the Senate. Arcioni writes:

It is uncertain whether this Italian experiment will survive a second testing. The practical result of external citizens effectively handing the coalition a majority in the Italian Senate has heightened queries as to the legitimacy of that vote. Essentially, that

is due to the unease regarding who is or should be a part of the relevant political

community with the power to control government.

There is a good reason to add representation for the diaspora in the Australian Senate, as they are a significant minority in Australia who have little political representation. Many Australian laws, such as the Electoral Act, Migration Act, and other dealings with the bureaucracy such as getting work visas for spouses etc would be better handled if the Australian diaspora had direct representation.

Though this could be handled just as effectively by having a minister for the Australian Diaspora, something no major party has bothered to even cogitate on.

Then again if all nation's adopted electoral laws such as New Zealand's, or if electoral roll eligibility was decided by permanent residency or work visas then political representation would not be an issue for many diasporans who are in a kind of enfranchised statelessness. Paying taxes and under duty to follow laws which they have no say in, and without representation.

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