Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Let me assure you, Senator Brandis, Minister for the Arts and Sport, that I am fully aware of who won the Allan Border Medal—and I am very proud of Punter—but I do not think people should be prevented from becoming a citizen just because they do not know who won it. I am sure that is not the intent but, seriously, it demeans citizenship to have that sort of stuff even floated as a possibility. Also, when newer migrants who are thinking about becoming citizens, and people who have migrated and become citizens, read that stuff, it sends the message: ‘Maybe you are not a real Aussie. Maybe we need to look at you suspiciously.’ You cannot dismiss the potential harm of that to the community fabric. At one level, it is appropriate to have a joking debate about the sorts of questions that could go in a citizenship test, but, at a serious level, this is damaging stuff. I can see that it is good politics and it is an easy thing to do—everyone can see that—but it is damaging to the Australian community.

When I was deluding myself that the government’s consultation about the citizenship test was genuine, in the very short period we had to consider the discussion paper I went around and talked to a lot of people in migrant communities around Brisbane and I found there was genuine concern. It is not good enough to just say that they are all wrong or that they are all lefties or something. They are feeling that way as members of the Australian community, and telling them they are wrong to feel that way is not good enough. They are getting those feelings because of the way this issue has been presented and discussed, and that is not positive for the fabric of the Australian community. I urge the government and the new minister—and whoever now has responsibility for this area—to steer away from this and do some repair work in terms of detailing how all of this is going to work.

There are a number of amendments, so there are other issues that I can raise in the course of this debate, but one thing I would like to mention now is the right to vote, which is one of the key rights of citizenship. It is worth noting that this right is not unconditional. Specifically, it has been taken away from one group of people—prisoners—by a deliberate decision of this government. It has, de facto, been put at risk by other changes to the Electoral Act that make it easier for people to be knocked off the roll and harder for people to get on the roll. Also, there is a significant group of people in the Australian community who are not Australian citizens but still have the right to vote: British subjects who were eligible to be on the roll prior to 1984. I am not seeking to play one group off against another, but if you want to sell Australian citizenship as a rolled gold membership of the Australian community with a special right to vote, yet you still have, under the Electoral Act, a bunch of people who are not Australian citizens but can vote, where is the motivation to become a citizen and where is the consistency? I can understand why that was put in the act as a grandfather clause back in 1984, but I think it is time to revisit that issue.

Another related issue, which I accept is a bit harder to resolve, is that, under the Australian Constitution, people who are dual citizens are prevented from being nominated for election to the federal parliament. I have discovered that we do not know how many people are dual citizens, but it is estimated to be about 20 per cent and growing. That figure will grow even more after this legislation has been put through because it will enable more people to become citizens who were previously excluded for various reasons. We will have a greater proportion of people who are dual citizens. I think that is a positive. I know that some people do not like it, but I do. We have a growing group of people who are disenfranchised from being able to nominate for election to the federal parliament. I think it is unfair on them, but it also means we are denying ourselves the opportunity of tapping into the talents of perhaps a quarter of the Australian citizenry. They cannot even nominate as candidates in an election campaign, let alone become members of parliament, so a whole lot of people are being locked out of a key part of the electoral process.

A little while ago I was looking through some old papers that my mother had dug out and I found a resume that my father had made back in the 1940s. It detailed some of the things that he had done—he was in his early 20s at the time—and some of his qualifications and a bit of his work experience. In amongst that information, date of birth et cetera, was ‘Nationality: British’. That floored me at the time. He had been born in Australia, as had his parents. He had never even left the country at that stage yet his nationality was British. It is a reminder to us of how citizenship is a continually evolving thing. Until 1948 we did not even have Australian citizens—we were all British subjects—and even after the Citizenship Act in various ways we were still British subjects despite being Australian citizens. So this is a continually evolving area, and this legislation is part of that process. As we continue to evolve, refine and improve the notion of Australian citizenship and the value of it, we need to make that debate as genuine and serious and robust as possible and try to move away from the jingoism and the dog-whistling that can infect such an important issue. I urge people to do that. I now move a second reading amendment that goes to some of the issues that I have just spoken about:

At the end of the motion, add:

“but the Senate:

             (a)    recognising that:

                   (i)    dual citizenship is part and parcel of Australian society,

                  (ii)    a significant proportion of Australians hold dual citizenship, and

                 (iii)    these Australians are disenfranchised in the sense that they are not able to run for election to the Federal Parliament without relinquishing their dual citizenship;

             (b)    calls on all parties in the Parliament to support, as a matter of urgency, legislation to initiate a referendum to remove the prohibition on dual citizens being able to run for Federal Parliament; and

             (c)    calls on the Government to:

                   (i)    instruct the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to develop and implement a comprehensive public information campaign to describe and promote the operation of the new Australian Citizenship Act,

                  (ii)    allocate sufficient funds for a television, radio and newspaper advertising campaign in Australia and overseas about the operation of the new Act,

                 (iii)    require the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to coordinate the dissemination of written information about the operation of the new Act to be available in Australian diplomatic posts overseas, and

                 (iv)    require the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to work closely with the Privacy Commissioner, to restrict to the maximum extent possible the collection, access, use and disclosure of personal identifying information.”