The controversial Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Testing) Bill 2007 was passed by Parliament on 12 September, and it is expected to commence early in October. The new Act amends the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 to require potential applicants for Australian citizenship to pass a multiple-choice “citizenship test” on Australian values before making an application.
According to Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Kevin Andrews, the citizenship test provides the means of ensuring that prospective citizens have an understanding of Australian values and society.
In his second reading speech, the Minister advanced several reasons for the introduction of a citizenship test, stating, “The test will encourage prospective citizens to obtain the knowledge they need to support successful integration into Australian society. The citizenship test will provide them with the opportunity to demonstrate in an objective way that they have the required knowledge of Australia, including the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship, and a basic knowledge and comprehension of English”.
However the new citizenship test continues to attract criticism by human rights groups who doubt the benefits of arbitrary citizenship testing, and claim that citizenship tests only benefit those people who excel at memory and cognitive tests.
Key Provisions
The Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Testing) Act 2007 amends the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 to provide for the testing of prospective applicants for Australian citizenship by conferral. Specifically, it requires applicants for Australian citizenship to have successfully completed a citizenship test in order to be eligible to become Australian citizens, demonstrating that they have an adequate knowledge of Australian history, culture, customs, geography, and heritage. The test is based on the resource book, “Becoming an Australian Citizen”, and sample questions include:
1. Which colours are represented on the Australian flag?
a. Green and yellow
b. Red, black and yellow
c. Blue, red and white
d. Orange and purple
2. Indigenous people have lived in Australia for ...
a. At least 40,000 years
b. About 8000 years
c. About 800 years
d. Less that 400 years
The knowledge component based on the citizenship test is in addition to other legislated criteria for citizenship, namely:
- An understanding of the nature of their application for citizenship;
- A basic knowledge of the English language; and
- An adequate knowledge of the responsibilities and privileges of Australian citizenship.
Opposition
The Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Testing) Act 2007 has attracted controversy and criticism from many interest groups, who believe the citizenship test is unnecessary, inappropriate and discriminatory.
Groups such as the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Coalition claim there has been no evidence presented that indicates a change in Australian citizenship law is warranted, and there is no empirical evidence that demonstrates any benefit from citizenship testing, and that such a test will only address a person’s memory and rote learning skills.
Critics have also argued the difficulties of defining the “Australian way of life” as a series of multiple-choice questions, particularly as multiple-choice questions tend to be based on limited perspectives of a subject. It has also been argued that studying for a test is not comparable to becoming educated in the Australian history and culture, or English language, and that the test will discriminate against refugees and migrants who have never had access to formal structured education, or gained literacy in their own language.
Prior to the introduction of the citizenship test, the process of granting citizenship involved an interview with a trained officer who interviewed the applicant in order to assess their knowledge, abilities or capacity to flourish in Australian society. Critics against the new citizenship test have argued that this system is a better judge of character and the ability to take on the benefits and burdens of citizenship than a computer-based multiple-choice test.
Only people who apply for citizenship after Monday 1 October 2007 will be required to sit the new citizenship test.