HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES - The Southern Cross Group

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Tuesday, 31 October 2006 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 97 will be more accessible, it will be better numbered, it will be easier to understand and hopefully it will be more logically organised. It also brings in a number of changes that were proposed following recommendations from the Australian Citizenship Council in 2000 and following government policy reviews in 2004. I think most members of parliament are honoured to attend citizenship ceremonies around the country. I suspect that those ceremonies may change in flavour depending on where you are. The sorts of people and the origin of those people who become citizens would vary according to the part of Australia in which one resides, but those citizenship ceremonies have certain common elements when people accept rights to fully participate in Australian society. Of course, accompanying those new rights are responsibilities. Unfortunately, in Australia today I think there is far too much emphasis on rights—what my rights or your rights are—and there is not an adequate emphasis on the accompanying responsibilities with those rights. They go hand in hand and it really is important that people who do become Australian citizens acquire the responsibilities of Australian citizenship in addition to the various rights that attach to the concept of Australian citizenship. Most citizenship ceremonies appear to be conducted by local authority heads of councils—in most cases, mayors—and I must say that I have been fortunate to preside over a number of citizenship ceremonies in my capacity as the member for Fisher. Whether ceremonies have large numbers of new citizens or only one or two, they are very moving. It really is interesting to see just what this important step means to people, some of whom have been here for a short time, and others who have been here almost since the concept of Australian citizenship commenced. The Australian Citizenship Bill 2005 and the Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Bill 2005 do propose numbers of important changes to Australia’s citizenship guidelines—for example, those citizens who inadvertently renounced their citizenship by applying for additional citizenship of another country may be able to restore their Australian citizenship; and children who lost their citizenship under this condition may now be able to qualify for citizenship. The age limits for applying for citizenship by descent will be removed and the definitions for spouses will now include genuine de facto partners. Other alterations include the capacity for citizenship to be revoked in cases where it was acquired through fraudulent means. There is an increase in the provisions to block and revoke the granting of citizenship, especially cases that involve an applicant committing serious offences, where applicants are assessed by ASIO to be a security risk and where they are involved in court matters. There has been substantial discussion in the community over certain of the remarks by Sheikh al-Hilali in recent times. My understanding is that under our act as it currently stands there is no provision to strip citizenship from people who no longer espouse Australian values. I consider if that is not in the act—and I understand that it is not—then that certainly ought to be included in the act because we have lots of people from around the world who want to join our Australian family. It is important that we only have those people who are prepared to represent the essence of what is Australian and the essence of Australian values. In the bills before the chamber there will also be provisions to grant citizenship to those who are born in Papua New Guinea while that country was a territory of Australia, where those people had at least one parent born in Australia. In addition, those children of Australian citizens who were born outside Australia will have greater abilities to be registered as citizens by descent. In 1949 it was required that these children be registered within one year of birth. This was increased to 18 years and then changed again to 25 years in 2002. However, surprisingly there are some residents who have missed out on becoming citizens by descent simply because they and their parents were unaware of the time limits for registration and the Australian Citizenship Bill 2005 and the Australian Citizenship (Transnationals and Consequential) Bill 2005 will remove the time limits altogether. This is a very equitable measure and it reflects accurately the notion that children who have a very significant tie to Australia should not be denied something as significant as Australian citizenship simply due to a lack of knowledge of the requirements and guidelines. The bills also lengthen the time frame between when new citizens arrive in Australia and the date when they become eligible to apply for citizenship. Historically under Australian law, Commonwealth citizens I think had to wait two years and those who were rather quaintly deemed to be aliens had to wait five years. For various reasons, I suppose, of feeling that there was a need to treat Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth citizens the same, everyone was required to be here for only two years as opposed to the previous situation. Personally I consider that to be here for fewer than 800 days indicates that we are really dumbing down Australian citizenship. We are essentially giving it away. I think the two-year requirement as it currently stands is woefully inadequate and that the step to increase the two years to four years is certainly a step in the right direction, but I would personally increase it to five years. Five years is, I understand, the period one has to wait for citizenship in the United States of America and also in the United Kingdom. A period of four years—five years as I said would be better but four MAIN COMMITTEE
98 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Tuesday, 31 October 2006 years is certainly a step in the right direction—is regarded as a more suitable period in which prospective citizens are able to become familiar— Mr Jenkins interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. DJC Kerr)—The member for Scullin will restrain himself. Mr SLIPPER—It is always good to see the honourable member for Scullin being compelled to restrain himself. I suppose the parliament would be even better off were that to happen on a greater number of occasions. But I do thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for your discipline of the Labor member for Scullin, who, despite his occasional lack of self-control, is really a very pleasant person. Ms Owens—Sometimes it is hard to control your nerves. Mr SLIPPER—I listen to what the Labor Party member says, but in the good-natured sense in which this debate is taking place. I am pleased to see that the member for Scullin is going to be making a contribution following me. The time frame—and I referred to the four-year time frame—which citizens will now have to wait before becoming eligible for Australian citizenship will give them a greater opportunity to become more familiar with our way of life. They will be able to understand better the essence of being Australian. They will also fully learn the commitment that citizenship is. I consider that these bills reflect changes to Australian society and they also make sure that those people who are privileged to become Australian citizens will have been here for an adequate period to acquire the knowledge of Australia necessary to fully participate in Australian society. I am pleased, though, that there is no retrospectivity—despite what the member for Batman said before—in this legislation and that those who are permanent residents in Australia now will not be caught by the new requirements. They will be able to obtain their Australian citizenship following the traditional two-year period, provided they apply for citizenship within a period of, I think, three years of the commencement of the bill. The Australian Citizenship Act has served Australia well and the new act is more than capable of taking its place. I want to commend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs for his paper calling for submissions from the Australian community on matters surrounding this area. I believe an English language test is very important. There is an undeniable connection between being able to read and write— and, for that matter, count—and being able to get a job. Having large numbers of migrants who have been here for many years not actually being able to speak English is not a healthy sign. It means that they are excluded from some elements of participation in Australian society. If we could ever acquire a situation where everyone could speak English, then I think that would be a very positive step. I, of course, would encourage people to not lose the language of their birth, their mother tongue, but it really is important that they should speak English. I think it is important, given the fact that we have huge numbers of people who want to come to Australia, to have them learn English before they come here rather than to be a drain on the resources of the Australian taxpayer and learn English once they actually are here. Having said that, of course, those residents who do not currently speak English obviously ought to have access to a range of facilities to enable them to obtain an appropriate level of English language competency. I commend the Australian Citizenship Bill 2005 and the Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Bill 2005 to the House. I invite the member for Scullin to speak, and I hope that he can maintain self-control. The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. DJC Kerr)—The member for Scullin’s enthusiasm knows no bounds, and I call him. Mr JENKINS (Scullin) (6.07 pm)—I regret that the opportunity that arises from the discussion of the Australian Citizenship Bill 2005 and the accompanying Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Bill 2005 is not purely an opportunity to express our joy about the success of Australian citizenship since it was first implemented in 1948 and came into force in January 1949. As an elected public official, both at local government and at federal level, for the past 27 years I have attended numerous—in fact, hundreds—of Australian citizenship ceremonies and have literally seen thousands of people take the step of becoming an Australian citizen. For somebody who was born an Australian citizen, it always amazes me to put myself in the place of those who are coming forward to adopt a new citizenship. Overwhelmingly, those people do so with great pride. Overwhelmingly, people who come forward to become Australian citizens at those ceremonies are clearly doing so because they want to, they understand the value, and they understand the values. So this piece of legislation, in its simple form, should have been a celebration of that. And if, in fact, this piece of legislation were merely based on those propositions that were put forward in July 2004, after a proper process, that celebration would have been possible. But what we have seen since July 2004 were, of course, events that MAIN COMMITTEE
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