Citizenship Testing - Submission

[Julia]

I think a Citizenship requirement should be loyalty to Australia first :aus: above religion !

Bob.

Excellent suggestion, Bob. That would eliminate a lot of potential trouble if it were possible to enforce it.

Julia

 

[WaySolid]

I think it's just a silly idea. I also think it's potentially a vote winner as well.

I would like to see the politicians advocating any test first pass it themselves, certainly if comprehension was a requirement then they should be careful including big scary words such as disparate and xenophobia.

Who started this really silly debate and what was it distracting us from? Howard and Iraq and I'm guessing, though I don't follow these things.

Australia has never fulfilled our immigration quota since honest J has been PM.

I believe we will be very worse for the experience unless we change our ageing demographic.

 

[Bobby]

Thanks Juddy & Julia for your support regarding Loyalty first .
Notice that there has been no detractors so far

Cheers
Bob.

 

[jonn]

I think a Citizenship requirement should be loyalty to Australia first :aus: above religion !

Bob.

And how does this work for people who were born here?

I know of people who's families have been here for generations, yet they still place their religion (Christian) over loyalty to Australia.

They have no other home - or any other "ethnicity" - but they do consider God to be more important than anything else.

So what would you propose? Yes, you can strip their citizenship from them, but where do they go? What country does a White Christian Australia get sent to when they place their God above their country?

 

[nioka]

And how does this work for people who were born here?

I know of people who's families have been here for generations, yet they still place their religion (Christian) over loyalty to Australia.

They have no other home - or any other "ethnicity" - but they do consider God to be more important than anything else.

So what would you propose? Yes, you can strip their citizenship from them, but where do they go? What country does a White Christian Australia get sent to when they place their God above their country?

I was brought up to be loyal to God AND country.

 

[coyotte]

I am a 3rd Generation Australian with 5th generation grandkids , so I have no problem with an identify issue.

But what are going back to --- my country, right or wrong --- my duty is not to question why , but to do and die.

Hoped we had left all this rubbish behind with the Vietnam humilation .

When loyalty to Australia is bought up , what is meant by it ?
Is it loyalty to incumrent Govt ?
Is it approving the invasion of other nations that have done us no harm ?


Afraid there are no "true blue Aussies " any more , that all went 20yrs ago for some reason , the present generation of Aussies are just a poor reflection of the Yanks that we are trying to mimick .

They wouldn't have a clue what the term " fair go " means , it's hip pocket , myself included


Cheer,s

 

[jonn]

I was brought up to be loyal to God AND country.

Not saying that it can't be done - just that there are people who are native Australians - born, bred and raised, and who hold no affiliation with any other country - who do.

When we issue broad sweeping statements like Howard, Beazley and any other number of people are doing at the moment, we need to stop and think of the people who are already here.

Australian values are well and good - and it IS a good idea that we try and encourage migrants to adopt our way of life if they're going to live here, but we need to look at the whole picture.

Do we ban Asian tourists who can't speak the language? We'll hurt our economy if we do start doing this. Yet nothing in this whole "people who come to Australia need to speak English" debate has differentiated between migrants and tourists. The 30 second soundbite isn't anywhere near as effective as analysing the practicalities behind it.

Do we not allow dear old Gran to come and spend her last years with her Greek family because she can't speak the language?

Do we allow lazy people who want to get free Government handouts to migrate? Some would say that that's a value that's held by a lot of Australians. Some would say that racism is a part of Australian values. Do we ban married homosexuals because marriage is a union betweeen a man and a woman (as the federal goverment is eager to remind us)?

As I said - I think that placing a test and having restrictions placed on those people who migrate here is actually fairly valid.

But, we just need to ensure (IMO) that it's being done for the right reasons and not just a political stunt by those in power to deflect us from the real issues.

 

[Julia]

Not saying that it can't be done - just that there are people who are native Australians - born, bred and raised, and who hold no affiliation with any other country - who do.

When we issue broad sweeping statements like Howard, Beazley and any other number of people are doing at the moment, we need to stop and think of the people who are already here.

Australian values are well and good - and it IS a good idea that we try and encourage migrants to adopt our way of life if they're going to live here, but we need to look at the whole picture.

Do we ban Asian tourists who can't speak the language? We'll hurt our economy if we do start doing this. Yet nothing in this whole "people who come to Australia need to speak English" debate has differentiated between migrants and tourists. The 30 second soundbite isn't anywhere near as effective as analysing the practicalities behind it.

Do we not allow dear old Gran to come and spend her last years with her Greek family because she can't speak the language?

Do we allow lazy people who want to get free Government handouts to migrate? Some would say that that's a value that's held by a lot of Australians. Some would say that racism is a part of Australian values. Do we ban married homosexuals because marriage is a union betweeen a man and a woman (as the federal goverment is eager to remind us)?

As I said - I think that placing a test and having restrictions placed on those people who migrate here is actually fairly valid.

But, we just need to ensure (IMO) that it's being done for the right reasons and not just a political stunt by those in power to deflect us from the real issues.

Good post, Jonn

Julia