Aussie government urges bipartisan support on sweeping changes to citizenship test

Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-20 10:03:04|Editor: Liangyu
Video PlayerClose

CANBERRA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has urged the opposition Labor Party to re-think its resistance to laws which would make it tougher for migrants to become citizens, after Labor decided it would not back the changes when they are introduced to Parliament this week.

Speaking at a forum on Tuesday morning, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten confirmed Canberra's worst kept secret in declaring that Labor would not support the bill in its "current form".

"We think that the government's citizenship laws do have flaws and we're going to kick it around at caucus and have a look at the matter," Shorten said at a National General Assembly of Local Government.

The government has previously said the re-vamped test would require migrants to show university-level proficiency in English and show that they align with "Australian values" on contemporary issues such as gender equality, family violence, and crime.

If the legislation was to pass Parliament, it would also require migrants to wait at least four years before applying for citizenship, while they would also need to demonstrate how they have "integrated" into society in that time.

On Tuesday, speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Immigration Minister Peter Dutton urged the opposition to re-think its stance on the changes, saying the legislation would only help those hoping to become an Aussie' integrate smoothly into Australian life.

"Every study demonstrates that people who have greater English capacity, there is the ability for them to get better jobs, do better at school and integrate better into Australian society," Dutton said on Tuesday.

"If people take the opportunities that are available to them, and over the course of the four years they know that at the end this is the language test and this is the requirement to pass, people will improve their skills."

Dutton said the migration landscape had changed significantly compared to the mid-20th century, explaining that modern technology and easier access to education makes it much easier for prospective citizens to get their English up to scratch.

"This is a very different scenario than it was post-world war two with people fleeing war-torn Europe coming to Australian in the late 1940s and 50s where people went directly into manual labor and had very little interaction with the education system or even broader society," the minister said.

"In the 21st century, there is a lot of assistance available online and the reality is that people do better across their working life if they have better English language skills."

Dutton's - and the government's - position was further backed by Liberal Democrat Senator, David Leyonhjelm, who on Tuesday said that many other nations had even stricter citizenship rules.

"A lot of countries in the world require a reasonable period of time before permanent residents can become citizens," told the press in Canberra.

"In Switzerland it's 10 years and in Japan, you won't necessarily get citizenship until after the second generation (of migrants).

"Citizens vote, that's the most important thing. Why do they need Australian values? Because they vote."

Overnight, Labor MP Linda Burney summed up her and her party's concerns with the stricter measures by saying that it was wasn't "fair for people who (were) escaping terrible situations".

TOP STORIES
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MOST VIEWED
EXPLORE XINHUANET
010020070750000000000000011100001363798531