Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will be deported, yes. That it is very arbitrary and I think that the values that will be placed on people seeking to come to Australia will reflect the values of those people who are writing them as opposed to the values that we all hold dear—and what should you value more? Be loyal to your country, be committed to democracy, value people’s rights and liberties and agree to uphold the law.

I know that the parliamentary secretary has released a paper talking about Australian citizenship, called ‘Australian citizenship: much more than a ceremony’. I think we all agree with that. There would not be a person in this parliament who does not agree that it was much more than a ceremony. People make that decision after thinking very long and hard about it. As I mentioned, 82 years is the longest time spent in Australia by any person that I have been at a citizenship ceremony with, but regularly people are there who have been in Australia in excess of 60 years. So it is not a decision that people take lightly and it is much more than just a ceremony.

To think that the parliamentary secretary could trivialise it to such an extent shows that he does not really understand what people go through when they attend those ceremonies. He talks about tests; he looks at the possible parameters for testing in this paper: a written English component, an oral English component and a separate listening and reading component. People will have to do a comprehension test. I wonder whether he is going to line up all those Australians who would have problems doing a comprehension test and test them—and what happens when they fail? Are we going to send them out of Australia along with me because of my failure to understand what Donald Bradman’s test average was? It is an English language test based on an educationally defined level of competency. Wow, that is a big ask; that is quite a hurdle for people to have to jump over.

It is a test of a person’s knowledge of Australia and of our way of life. What would that encompass? Would it encompass a list of the 10 best speeches in Australia? Would it encompass when all the cricket matches are on and when the AFL and the rugby league and the rugby union matches are on? Would it encompass knowing where people meet, where there are multicultural activities and where people welcome and embrace each other? Would it be looking at the history of Australia not from what I suspect is the parliamentary secretary’s point of view but looking at the contribution that people from all nations in this world have made to this country—the contributions that have made Australia the country it is today?

In this document he details some of the tests that are undertaken in other countries. In the Netherlands there is a listening test of 40 minutes, with 25 exercises based on recorded answers and a story, and a pass mark of 40 per cent. There is a speaking test of 20 minutes, a reading test of 60 minutes and a writing test of 60 minutes. That is for 20 exercises. There would be so many Australians that would fail that test.

You can look at the tests of other countries such as the United States and those in the United Kingdom. The United States has quite an interesting one in which it asks: ‘What colour are the stripes on the flag?’ and ‘Name the highest part of the judiciary branch of our government.’ I suspect that there would be quite a few Australians who do not know the answer to those questions—and who maybe do not know how many points are on the stars on the flag or what corner the Union Jack is in. I think that what is happening here is not about ensuring that people who come to this country understand what it is to be Australian.

I think this is more of the Howard government’s wedge politics—more of the division and more of the blaming of people who come to Australia and treating them as second-class citizens. In one way or another, we have all come from another country, and I think that it is time that this government concentrated on unifying our nation—not on creating division and dwelling on the differences and on fear but on bringing people together and on the core values that make a society a great one: one of inclusiveness, one of valuing each other and one of working together as opposed to one of division.

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