nioka said:
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.