Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Considering I have a brief amount of time available to me now, I will commence by thanking Senator Murray for his remarks. As usual, he has brought a very eloquent and thoughtful contribution to the chamber, particularly when outlining yet again some of the effects that our legislation has on child migrants and also the good work that the Senate has done in trying to grapple with some of the horrendous consequences that those people have faced. Yet we still have some legislative discrimination against them and they find themselves in a situation that is absolutely no fault of their own.

Like Senator Murray, I was at a citizenship ceremony on Australia Day. In fact, I went to more than one. Perhaps it is somewhat topical that we are debating the whole issue of citizenship so close to Australia Day. I would like to take this opportunity to place on the public record my thanks to both the City of Stirling and the City of Wanneroo for the excellent job that they do. In fact, the City of Wanneroo goes out of its way to ensure that the whole day is dedicated to celebrating the joys of Australian citizenship and the advantages of being involved in your local community. When discussing the issue of Australian citizenship and the value we place on it, like with all things to do with values, actions speak louder than words. I think a debate like this is really the time to have a look at some of the actions of the government, but that is for later on in my truncated contribution to this debate.

As has been said by others in this debate, this legislation, the Australian Citizenship Bill 2006 and the Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Bill 2006, consolidates and rewrites the old Australian Citizenship Act 1948. Most of this bill facilitates taking up citizenship according to the recommendations of the report of the Australian Citizenship Council released on 18 February 2000, which has been dealt with previously. Both the Labor opposition and the Council of Australian Governments supported the increase of the citizenship waiting period from two to three years based on the government’s security package. Whilst I accept that that is controversial in some places, it was supported. This decision was seen as striking the correct balance after receiving the necessary information on the security issues concerned. However, the government has not convinced those of us on this side that the need for a further change from three to four years is all of a sudden necessary.

We on this side have therefore indicated that we are not in position to support a short-sighted policy that delays people committing to our values, Australian values, which those on the other side would like to herald so loudly and for so long. To further delay people seeking to become Australian citizens and committing themselves to those values would seem to be unnecessarily harsh.

Debate interrupted.