by KEVIN ANDREWS – THE revelation that 35 per cent of recent applicants failed the Australian Citizenship Test is of concern.
According to the Department of Home Affairs, data reveals more than 100,000 failed citizenship tests over 14 months between June 2022 and August 2023.
- People with little or no connection to our Western culture are immigrating.
- We have a responsibility to explain our values – and new immigrants a responsibility to understand them.
- These values are not particularly controversial for the majority of Australians.
The data shows the pass rate under Labor has fallen to 65 per cent compared to about 80 per cent under the Coalition between 2017 and 2021.
Since the May 2022 election, 288,603 citizenship tests were administered to August 31 last year, with 187,574 tests passed.
QUESTIONS
The tests, which include 20 multiple-choice questions on freedom of speech, the importance of democracy, and the rule of law, – require a person to correctly – answer five questions on Australian values and achieve a mark of at least 75 per cent to pass.
The citizenship test was last updated by the Morrison Government in November 2020 to include a dedicated section on Australian values.
The Citizenship Test was announced in December 2006 and introduced when I was the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship in October 2007.
During the term of the Howard government, it became clear that many people immigrating to Australia either didn’t understand or didn’t share our values, most likely the former reason.
There was no simple solution to this issue, especially if the nation maintained a non-discriminatory immigration policy and accepted refugees from all parts of the world, based on the greatest needs.
Many people with little or no connection to our Western culture were immigrating to Australia.
It was not about blaming them for their background or singling them out as “different”, but acknowledging that many of the values underpinning the Australian way of life were completely new to them.
Surely, we had a responsibility to explain our values – and new immigrants a responsibility to understand them?
A response adopted by many jurisdictions was to introduce a citizenship test.
Announced in December 2006 and operational from October 2007, relatively minor changes have been made by Labor and Coalition governments. Labor did not oppose the introduction of the test.
BASIC
To pass the citizenship test an applicant must show: a basic knowledge of the English language; an understanding of what it means to become an Australian citizen; an adequate knowledge of Australia and the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship; and an understanding and commitment to Australian values based on freedom, respect, and equality.
These values are: Commitment to the rule of law; Parliamentary democracy; Freedom of speech, association, and religion; Equality of all people under the law, Equality of opportunity and a “fair go”; and Mutual respect and tolerance of others.
None of these values are particularly controversial for the majority of Australians. It would appear, however, that at least some of them are problematic for many seeking to become Australian citizens – and for some who were born here or who have become citizens.
For example, the citizenship booklet includes a range of sample questions, including the following.
“In Australia, you can encourage violence against a person or group of people, if you have been insulted:
(a) Yes, if you do not intend to carry out violence,
(b) No, it is against Australian values and the law,
(c) Sometimes, if I feel very offended.”
To anyone cognisant of our values, the answer clearly is (b) – it is against Australian values and the law.
Yet, there have been a series of recent comments by some community leaders and others urging violence against people of different religious views.
UN-AUSTRALIAN
This intolerance should continue to be called out. It is un-Australian.
The government should respond to the Home Affairs data, as well as to recent events.
It should stress to applicants for citizenship that understanding Australian values is critical to becoming a citizen.
If necessary, additional resources should be devoted to educating applicants.
It should also take action against the people who breach the law and these values. If the existing laws are insufficient, then they should be strengthened.
A nation without shared values cannot survive.PC
Hang on a minute Kevin. My parents were WWII migrants and loved this country, worked hard paid taxes and raised a family, built a nation. My children love this land and so do my grandchildren. You really need to start to tell the truth about this mess. It is only one type of migrant that hates our country and want to see it destroyed and, they are Muslim migrants. And who should we blame? It’s you and your political ilk that opened the floodgates without any regard to what would happen to our beloved nation. Tell the truth.
Just 2 hours ago I saw Sonny Bill Williams – the Kiwi boxer/rugby league player who appeared in that ridiculous “Untrue” video denying all the Hamas atrocities – and he was being treated like a hero by several middle eastern men who wanted him to do a selfie with them. What a bunch of wankers! They should go back to wherever they came from and take Williams with them!
On the other hand, and I worked in the Sydney Bankstown District suburbs where many ethnic groups live and work, and with many employees Asian Australians from Vietnam and Laos and from Hong Kong, and they were proud to call themselves Australians.
But the Middle Eastern countries ethnic groups, especially Muslims but not all of them, do not like us, we are not acceptable because we are not followers of Islam primarily. But again, there are exceptions.
It was worrying when the Rudd Labor Government 2007-2013 abandoned the Howard Coalition’s Pacific Solution deterrents, notably offshore detention and processing, let over 50,000 illegal immigrant asylum seekers into Australia. It is worrying that after May 2022 Albanese Labor granted the remaining illegal immigrants here on Temporary Protection Visa permanent residence and right to become citizens and apply for family reunion.
Many of the illegal immigrants photographed on Christmas Island by residents as they came ashore after Rudd Labor sent RAN ships to ferry them to the Island from people smuggler vessels (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessels – SIEV and an arrival number that Labor rebadged Suspected Irregular Entry Vessels) were young and fit looking military types.
As many probably know the UN Convention on Refugees requires genuine refugees to seek refuge in the closest safe haven to their homeland. Example from Afghanistan to Pakistan where UNHCR Refugee Camps are located. The people smuggler clients had the cash to pay for flights to Indonesia, a forged passport and of course no visa required for Muslims to enter Indonesia. They handed the forged passports back to the smugglers when they boarded vessels to sail to Australia to make background checking almost impossible hoping authorities here would believe their stories.
These are the backgrounds of the now Australian citizens who enjoy the democratic rights and security offered to them here but do not like us.
It is also worth considering that Islam has a number of factions or churches like Christianity has, and are not all one ethnic group or language.
These (Australian) values are: Commitment to the rule of law; (Daniel Andrews?) Parliamentary democracy; (The Voice passed in the Federal Government, but was soundly defeated in the referendum), Freedom of speech (The coming misinformation/disinformation laws where the government decides what is either?), association (The myriad anti-discrimination laws prohibiting freedom of association?), and religion (subject to anti-discrimination laws?) ; Equality of all people under the law (Cardinal George Pell in Victoria?), Equality of opportunity and a “fair go”; and Mutual respect and tolerance of others.
It would be great if the State and Federal governments and constituent politicians adhered to Australian values.
Youse “Skippy” Australians are not like us.
Just not good enough for us to accept.
Exactly right, Kevin. Worse, it has become abundantly clear that many of these new Australians have absolutely no intention of accepting the values that underpin western civilisation. They simply see multiculturalism as a licence to establish a colony for their own demographic within Australia. Indeed, it takes arrogance and stupidity of a very high order to expect any other outcome. But that’s the Left for you. With naivety and zeal in equal order, the ALP and its fellow travellers in the Coalition repelled any doubts with cries of ‘racist’. This was another lie. It’s not so much race as culture.
But now the damage is done. We have within Australia an alien lodgement that promises to transform politics in a way the Left never envisaged. It’s the same within so many other Western countries that have made the same mistake. Working on the premise that political expression is the outworking of societal values, it is only a matter of time before new political parties emerge in say, south-western Sydney. We saw the first cracks in those Sydney seats that rejected the instructions of their ALP colonial over-lords by voting against same-sex marriage. Unflinching support for Hamas takes us a step closer to the emergence of a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in those twelve electorates. The ALP will simply be blown away, a sad footnote to history. How will the teals go in the face of political Islam? Just a charming irrelevance after all?