For me growing up, this was crystal clear – I may have British parents, but I was born in Australia so this was the country to which I officially belonged.

The “oldies” (Dad and his brother and sister) were the Poms and us kids in the family were the Aussies, and this was never more apparent than during the Ashes cricket.

It helped that Australia didn’t lose a series between 1989 and 2002-03; it was fun always being on the winning side.

In truth, I have always considered myself a little bit English from Dad’s side and a little bit Scottish from Mum’s side.

But when Michael Kasprowicz went out with just three runs to win in that famous 2005 test, there was no doubt I was completely an Aussie and a shattered one at that.

The country’s politicians were probably just as sure of their own status as Australian citizens until this past month when the Parliament was revealed to be a multicultural place featuring part Brits, Italians and New Zealanders.

If Matt Canavan is a soccer fan, no doubt he would have been as filthy as the rest of us when Italy won that dubious penalty in the 2006 World Cup quarter final.

I remained naive about my own Aussie identity until Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash was revealed as a dual British citizen.

If her Scottish parent automatically placed her in that category, could mine?

It took about five minutes of searching the British government website to find that yes, it absolutely did.

My circumstances were different to Senator Nash’s, but the results were the same: I was born on or after January 1, 1983 and one or both my parents are British citizens not by descent – that makes me a British citizen by descent.

It’s one thing to know you could always qualify for a British passport if you applied, it’s quite another to find out you actually belonged to that kingdom all along.

Luckily for me, Fairfax is happy to employ a dual citizen as a journalist and I have never been required to sign any legal documents declaring that I was solely an Australian.

Dad’s first response was a surprise – he too always assumed he had two Australian kids.

His second was to laugh because a couple of my cousins born after 1983 are also dual British citizens and in his words, “have been on the wrong side when the Ashes are on”.

I can accept belonging to two different nations, but barracking for England in the cricket? That’s just crossing a line.

Hearing “God Save the Queen” just makes me feel more Aussie because I always associate it with hearing the national anthems before a test match.

The question of who you are, really as a person, is about more than how a government lists you on a piece of paper.

One of the wonderful things about Australia is that it is a country full of different people: those whose families have lived here for decades, started a new generation of Australians like myself, or recently migrated from all over the world. We can still all identify with the green and gold.

Politicians involved in the dual citizenship scandal are scrambling to renounce the other half of their nationality, but I’m happy to embrace mine – it’s always been part of who I am anyway.

So while I will call myself a dual British-Australian, when Joe Root walks out to bat in the Ashes this summer, I still wish him nothing but failure.