Page 4084 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
up English or understand why Australians like beetroot in their burgers or pineapple on their pizzas. When migrants settle here it is natural for them to mix with people of their own background and slowly start mixing with other cultures and joining society.
Does knowing the names of Australia’s first three Prime Ministers really make you a better citizen? In fact, I think it would be fair to say that many native born Australians would not be able to name them. The point is that this does not make them bad people—or bad Australians. Even defining Australian values is a hard ask, let alone formally testing them. This is not surprising, of course, given the highly subjective nature of any “value”.
I was at the Muslim Advisory Council meeting last night and this proposed test was mentioned. The members of the committee commented to me that they felt aghast that the Prime Minister might feel that values such as kindness to one another, sharing and helping those in need are not held by people from other nations. John Howard and Andrew Robb do not hold a mortgage on values. It is not up to them to write them, prescribe them or test them.
Abstract concepts such as mateship and a fair go will mean something different to every citizen, regardless of their cultural background. Our vibrant nation and all that it offers today was built on the skills and contribution of people from distant lands with different cultures, religions and beliefs.
Migrants contribute to all aspects of our nation. In fact, they are part of the Australian way of life and Australian values. Migrants who arrived here in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s with only limited resources and English language skills today employ thousands of people in businesses across the country. Some of the migrants from those days still are unable to speak adequate English and many certainly would be unable to work a computer.
I remember the Prime Minister visiting the Hellenic club in September and saying that the Greeks who came to this country are model citizens. Well, they would have been discriminated against if they had been made to sit this citizenship test. I have no doubt that there were probably some Greek people at the Hellenic club on that day that would have found it difficult to pass the Howard government’s proposed citizenship test.
The proposed sale of the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric plant earlier this year generated a huge public outcry. This development, seen by many Australians as a symbol of multiculturalism, was developed largely by unskilled migrants. Most of them would have failed this citizenship test, which is based on ill-defined values and concepts.
Furthermore, the inclusion of an English language test as a condition of citizenship is discriminatory and divisive. A person’s language is a consequence of race, descent or national or ethnic origin. This provision is ethnocentric and may well disproportionately impact on people of certain racial or ethnic origins.
Already we have seen it divide the federal Liberal Party, with Mr Georgiou speaking against it. He is opposed to it for good reasons, as reported in the press. I would be
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .