Is Citizen Liu about to be de-citizened?

It would seem that our old friend Bill Liu may not have seen the last roll of the dice in his citizenship furore; Stuff reports:

Prime Minister John Key is not ruling out stripping Chinese fugitive Yong Ming Yan of New Zealand citizenship.

The Office of the Auditor-General is investigating why former Labour minister Shane Jones gave Mr Yan a New Zealand passport in 2008.

Mr Yan, a wealthy political donor - also known as Bill Liu - was red-flagged by Interpol as a fugitive.

He was wanted for fraud and identity theft in China and Internal Affairs officials advised Mr Jones that his application should be declined.

Mr Jones, who was stood down from his shadow portfolios in May, says he gave Mr Yan a passport on humanitarian grounds, and that he had been told Mr Yan would be arrested, executed and his organs harvested if he were sent back to China.

Yesterday, Mr Key said Mr Jones has some "big questions to answer". It was difficult to comment until Auditor-General Lyn Provost had finished her investigation, he said.

However, citizenship could be revoked if "[a minister is] satisfied that they obtained the citizenship by fraud, false representation or wilful concealment of relevant information or by mistake". 

This is a welcome statement from John Key. Even though Liu was cleared of criminal charges, the Judge who heard the case was strongly suspicious of the documents used by Liu in his citizenship application.

It will be interesting to see what the Auditor-General finds in this case. And in fact we wonder whether the release of the A-G's report is imminent, given a recent flurry of activity and interest in the case.

Revoking Liu's citizenship would meet with widespread approval. And it would immediately distance the current government from its predecessor, and from the allegations that Bill Liu received a New Zealand passport more by way of political patronage than by his suitability under the law.