I agree with the article that the test is useless. This is another half-way move from a gutless Government that cannot act on its convictions.

The exercise was supposed to screen islamists at point of entry into our society. As if blackening a few boxes on a monitor is going to define the true motives of Islam on our land – anymore than swearing allegiance to the Queen.

Islam – the source of terrorism – will continue to elude politicians. Their inability to expose Islam for what it really is, is a sign of weakness in the eyes of the followers of this evil ideology.

Islam – disguised as a religious belief – will continue to errode our secular way of life by continual infiltrating, making unreasonable demands, enjoy undetected access by our flawed screening processes (or the lack of them), and corrupting every sphere of our society... until the complete Islamization of this land.

Islam is the mother of all disguise when it comes to deception.

Victim one day, brutal the next.

Ah - an excellent example of why the democrats won't be around for much longer - for good reason. One can hardly wait.

The citizenship test IS a good idea. It is only expected that if people wish to join our country that they have a basic understanding of it.

If only the government could go that little bit further and require immigrants to speak english, the difficulty immigrants face integrating into Australia would be eased significantly. But to the Democrats that sort of policy smacks of 'racism' because it requires immigrants to speak, low and behold, 'english'. It's "cultural imperialism" you see. Funny that. I would have thought wanting to make sure people can speak the national language so that they can get a job, communicate with their neighbours, send their kids to school, would be a good thing.

Allison's qualms about the content of the test are also silly. For a brief general overview of Australian history and geography it serves a good function. Allison's agenda to make it all about "women" and "climate change" demonstrate just how much the left has a strangle hold on what used to be a sensible party that one might have thought worthy of a vote. Everything now has to be made about 'climate change' and 'women', or some other leftist agenda.

This whole article shows how the democrats have moved so far from what they were originally established to achieve - a sound alternative to the major parties. They are now just a bunch of hippy, tree-hugging socialists with more in common with the greens than any other party that offers real solutions and real policies. The democrats have become a minor party, just like the greens. Perhaps they should just merge? Both are inept parties for the inane.

I don't think Allison's chances of getting re-elected are high. Thank goodness for that.

I half agree with ramis - it's not a bad idea if immigrants at least have a working knowledge of English. But knowing who Alfred Deakin was won't help them a bit.

I also agree that the Democrats seem to have abandoned the middle ground and are parrotting the Greens, who have way more media punch.

The Dems need to punch through with a small business economic policy.

Lyn Allision has described the testing procedures as being “racist”, and also described them as being “very male”.

So she equates racism with being male which is now sexism.

While hiding behind the banner of equality, Lyn Allison is simply a sexist.

So much for honesty.

I think the testing is a sign of the times.

Such tests seem to be the latest political corporate toy within English speaking democracies. They are all the rage in the UK and America.

What I would like to see is whether the people who propose them could actually be required to sit them and pass or risk losing their citizenship?

(Fairness being a much lauded Australian value)

For example - the current Minister for Immigration - following his comments about the reduction of numbers of refugees from Africa has been labelled as making comments that are hostile to Australian values by the Human Rights Commissioner.

Were he to sit the test set by his colleagues in the Department of Foreign Affairs could he pass or more to the point would he pass?

(it is multiple choice after all)

An even more interesting question is, were he to fail should he lose his citizenship and if so, where would he seek asylum?

More to the point, where would HE be considered a desirable immigrant?

Dafur perhaps?

Nah, he is the wrong religion, the wrong ethnicity and the wrong colour!

This is the worst article I've read on this site.

My parents used to vote Democrat - that disillusioned, Don Chipp type of voter - neither do now, and most of my friends who thought about it would never do so now. This article shows why - what do the Dems STAND for? Gender politics? Honestly!

If you don't like the things in the test, seek to change it - there's NOTHING in Allison's article that goes to the PRINCIPLE of the test. And on the other hand, if you believe in the principles for which the test stands, but disagree with the policies (e.g. Iraq) that you think don't fit with those principles, surely you'd PREFER to have a test like this as a backdrop, a basic set of principles to point to in calling the government to account..?

Whatever staffer Allison had write this isn't earning his/her money. And the Dems are going to disappear at this election.

Hi Cheryl, you want policy check out this link

http://www.democrats.org.au/campaigns/election_07_our_election_platform/#economy

Small Business policy is under A Modern Economy. Now compare it and any other detailed policies to any other party let alone the Greens or FamilyFirst.

The point about this test is it proves absolutely nothing. I agree English is useful but we have had thousands of migrants come to this country with little or no English (certainly not enough to pass this test) who have made fantastic contributions to Australia.

This policy doesn't weed out undesirables anymore than demonsising refugees who arrive by boat but hey its easier to dog whistle than to come up with policies and services that integrate all Australians wherever you were born and whatever language you speak.

Geez the advertising wizards behind the Liberals are ingenious.

No one questions the campaign advertisement agenda. They're reeling in the xenophobes hook, line, and sinker with this one.

Pauline Hanson eat your heart out ... they're stealing your target audience!

I don't have a problem with the basic idea of this test. It's not so much about preventing anyone from becoming a citizen as it is about ensuring they educate themselves about the basics of the nation they are joining. There are probably plenty of issues with the content of the test, however most of the criticism in this article goes a bit far.

The only criticism I'd agree with is the exclusion of the Democrats (and presumably other minor parties) from the history. Ideally any political party with a current or recent sitting member should be covered. Not only is it important to maintain political neutrality, it would be a good way to demonstrate the diversity of views and openness of the political process in this country.

I don't think the test is the place to be covering current or recent political issues (tampa, climate change, iraq). Firstly as it would be impossible to keep the content both up to date and reasonably free from bias. Secondly as people in this country are likely to be saturated with information about these issues through the media anyway.

I think the claim of a sexist history is misplaced. Society was quite sexists throughout our history and trying to cover over it by over-emphasizing the role of women would be quite ludicrous. Equally not expecting people to learn the basics of the national language would be doing them a disservice. As these people are now going to be voting and having a say in how this country is run, I think it's critical that they be able to comprehend what our politicians and laws say.

One thing I do agree with, is that our current treatment of immigrants, particularly refugees, goes against the values that the test claims are at the heart of this country. I don't think this is a problem with the test, rather a problem with the immigration process. I think the current government should take a look at itself and consider just how poorly its actions align with the values of the nation it claims to represent.

I received a copy of part of the test via email. These were some of the questions on

CUSTOMS
1. Macca, Chooka and Wanger are driving to Surfers in their Torana. If they are travelling at 100 km/h while listening to Barnsey, Farnsey and Acca Dacca, how many slabs will each person on average consume between flashing a brown eye and having a slash?
2. Complete the following sentences:
a) "If the van's rockin' don't bother ...
b) You're going home in the back of a ...
c) Fair suck of the ...
3. I've had a gutful and I can't be fagged. Discuss
4. Have you ever been on the giving or receiving end of a wedgie?
5. Do you have a friend or relative who has a car in their front yard "up on blocks"? Is his name Keith and does he have a wife called Cheryl?

Now that's a test!

Hangon westernred, fair suck of the sav re point five. Keith's up on blocks and I'm in the kitchen watchin Neighbours.

Pauline Hanson's statements today says it all for "bigots" when it comes to swinging the flag for one's own group, on race or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

Australia would be nowhere without the Democrates, the Greens and all those with the wealth of diversity and who bother to critically challenge the bigots.

A dark-hued somber hangs over the greatest hypocrisy testing our citizenship today. With phoney Aussie elections the norm at home and the trouble we cause abroad... let's hope we can get it right.... and come out on the other side of this incommodious power struggle.

To fill this country with more hot air or gas would just make the contemptuous insolence swell larger attracting yet more insensitivity and erode more the “peacefulness” value.

1) I think I would not have passed the citizen test.
2) Those who advocate this test know little about the true value of their citizenship.
3) A Government advocating this sort of hypocrisy has little substance or significance in our daily lives because most of what it claims is out of touch and not solidly based.
4) Value = a measure of those qualities that determine merit, desirability, usefulness, or importance. What usefulnes does the test... a persons submission or memory?
5) Citizenship is supposed to represent duties, rights, and privileges.... (It is about an Action not a Colonial History)

And I respect Anna Bligh (QLD) for speaking out on the Sudan residents of Australia today.

I am one citizen counting on our leaders to find the spunk to STAND UP AND BE COUNTED as the confrontation between opposing groups in which each attempts to harm or gain power over the other in politics continues in coming weeks.

And, I want the Human Rights Commission to take the Government to Court over their racist immigration stance, and to go ALL the way.

Racism needs to be eradicated everywhere and especially in Australia where we ought to know better.

http://www.miacat.com
.

I was born here but was not considered an Australian- nor were my parents or grandparents and their grandparents.

o Were we ever asked if we wanted to be Australian? No
o Do I consider myself an Australian now? No
o Would I pass this silly test? Yes.
o Would passing this silly test make me feel Australian? No
o What did the 67 referendum do for me? Absolutely Nothing

I consider myself very Australian... both sides of my family came out in 1855 as paying passengers.

I think this test is the silliest notion of all. What? answering a few questions about us will make you be one of us and forget any annoyances you harbour towards us... Garbage!

The numbnuts who believe in this stuff shouldn't be allowed to vote - on medical grounds they are crazy!.. Ha!

How quickly we forget how poorly Aussies treated the immigrants that came out in earlier times. Yep we bullied them and called them names... and when they formed communities we accused them of non-assimilation. Gee we Aussies sure lead by example.

I congratulate and thank all the people who have come to make this country your home. Thankyou for allowing me to share and grow from the wonderful cultures that you come from and have brought with you.

No need to fill out any test with me... I will show you respect and I'm guessing I'll probably get it back from you. Well that's been my experience thus far.

From then on we are fellow Australians and I will be proud to call you one! Welcome!

The Test.... simply tests a bit of general knowledge...

It does nothing ..zero.. to ensure acceptable attitudes and values.

Of course Kevin Andrews' test is little more than a dog-whistle designed to appeal electorally to the xenophobes. However, with a bit of work it could be made into a useful instrument to increase the quality of Australian civic life.

This would involve a more general application of the test - to the entire adult population of Australia - as a prerequisite to being allowed to vote.

In particular, those who can't spell properly or use pronouns correctly should be disenfranchised :)

CJ

"... as a prerequisite to being allowed to vote."

I agree with you there - this I think is the case in the US. A bit of OZ history and general knowledge couldn't hurt anybody…especially when we are obligated to vote.

CJ and Coach,

I think you are on to something there.

A small test should be applied to 18 year olds as procedural to being able to be allowed to vote.

Q. 1.

Which of the following is a rodent?

a)Mickey Mouse
b)Hamster
c)Guinea pig
d)John Howard
e)All of the above

Why has it taken the Leader of the Democrat's so long to react to JWH's citizen's test ? For that matter, of all the issues confronting the Senate impinging on Oz values since Don Chipp's celebrated invocation : ' keeping the bastards honest ' circa 1977 ? Fact is: Allison's recent foray is decicedly any thing BUT.

Speak's volumes of thirty years of abysmal, biodiversified irrelevance. Kernot, Lees, Haines, Despoja and now LA. One and all feathering their own. A profligate liability; an imposition on the long suffering, tax-paying electorate. Realistically, these fringe party's achieve little - they lack the crunch numbers in both houses. An Oz characteristic ? Vote Pauline Hanson.

Allison's cringe, centre's not on the historical military overtones of the citizen's test; the Tampa, the Siev X debacle where 335 Indonesians perished, 146 being children, but on a narroow politician's outlook - women are a minority in Parliament and Corporate boardrooms ?? Fact is, US high profile women slog tooth and nails in the World's most prolific rat-race to attain CEO status. Their newly won gains are perceptively short lived. You have got to earn it girlie !

The Citizen's teat is nothing compared to the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act - commonly known as the detested " White Australian Policy Act ". Applicants wishing to enter Aust were restricted to a ' diction test ' in any European language, not nesessarily English ! It was a deterrent specific for Asians, Coloured and Islanders. In 1958, the Act was repealed by the Migration Act, allowing the Minister absolute discretion on all applications. Coincidenly, UK exodus migrant intake was at it's peak. Paying only ten quid to settle or holiday in the Land of Opportunity. The Bureaucrats administering the test employed full time interpreters. Less than 2% of the population spoke a foreign language. The Labour Party under Edmund Barton ( question 10 ) was responsible for this largess. Has the Immigration Department methodology improved ?

Citizen Wannabe's have to swear allegiance to a Monarch residing in a polygot decadent multicultural Island 16000 miles away ! Ken Andrew's evidently

ensured Republican's had minimal input to his manifesto.

Whether it's solemn Oaths or Vows taken on the Christian Bible is anything to go by, we have druggies, rapists, wife-bashers, child-killers etc religiously swearing in the Courts, daily professing their innocence ? The Judiciary it seems conveniently overlooks perjury as a serious crime ? Marriage vows attest to growing prevalence of divorces, seperations, defections, with 1:2 Aust's opting out of wedlock. Why bother to wave a dead chicken ?

Q2. Indigenous have lived in Oz for 40,000 years before Capt Cook raised the Union Jack over terra australas! In the 229 years of exemplary Western Democracy, the wretched Abo is no better off. It took a Referendum 40 years ago to merely recognise his existance !
Hitherto, him, his missus and piiccaninny were galactic aliens.

His lot has never been easy-street. Aboriginal History has been a chronology of sanitised mythology fashioned by historian's on million dollar Govt grants who would swear Austwitz was a Yiddish gallimaufry creation; gas chambers, an extravaganza orchestrated by the endearing Wiggles ! So much for professional integrity. The ' stolen generation ', Tasman massacres, poisoned waterholes are fringe bits. Genocide, infanticide, dispossession, human rights abuses, the litany rivals the decimation of the proud American Indian Race, the Inca's, ethnic Albanians, Kosovo ad infinitum.

The recent brouhaha involving police sergeant Hurley on Palm Island is indicative of racial discrimination erupting into murder, albeit manslaughter. Despite the Coroner's Court evidence, his contradiction on Oath, on four occasions, perjury, he was later exonerated at trial. The CMC investigating white-washed the inquiry. Dozen's of uniformed police, senior Officers, and obfuscating Union hierarchy attended daily proceedings. Intimidating ?

Q14. Which of the following are Australian values ?
a. Men and women are equal
b. A 'fair go '
c. Mateship
d. All of the above

I have yet to see equality in the workplace, sporting arena or family unit.Allison, for all her navel-gazing readilly admits is ' pie-in-the-sky 'rhetoric - relegated to the cultural propaganda delusion ala Canberra. Mateship, fair go, is as relevant today as the Cronulla fiasco and aftermath.

Well done Lyn Allison and Anna Bligh!

I feel confident about the future of Australia with politicians of this calibre ready to stand up for those being unfairly demonised.

Oh! Boy, another cringing apologist. Not uncommon for a Democrat I suppose.
It is not going to HURT any new comer to study Australian history or laws or traditions.
Anything done by the Liberals to keep the peace in Oz is going to be howled down by the lidiots as this is being.
Too many with not enough to occupy their tiny minds is the trouble.
The Citizenship swearing in should include a sworn contract to keep the peace, keep Australian laws and leave the old tribal laws behind.
That is what the new test should include.

Lyn Allison’s article has perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the 60’s and 70’s. It was a crazy time back then when people disengaged from society’s rules and norms. Women back then burned their bras as a symbolic declaration of their freedom. Lyn was the first (and only) female to burn her bra while she was still wearing it. It was a presageful and silly act nevertheless noted by Uncle Don, another discontented person. Over the years Lyn has witnessed the Democrats tap their exclusive rich vein of comic geniuses. The Democrats gave us Cheryl (Oh! That red dress) the coquette who was seduced by matinee idol Gareth Gareth. Cheryl left her family and eloped with Gareth Gareth to Gretna Green. On their return to Australia, Cheryl pleaded for a safe suburb to call home but the best Gareth Gareth could offer was a dump in Dickson. Lemons replaced violins. The Democrats continued to entertain us when they chose a leader who wanted to open a VIP airline to conduct flights from Manus Island to Australia. The only cargo would be stray cats. Lyn is now part of the Democrat’s harlequinade. It is odd that a person who must obey her party’s rules and regulations and the Senate’s rules and regulations should find fault with rules attaching to becoming an Australian citizen.

Miacat, you are correct that we need to eradicate racism in Australia but accepting Chinese migrants won’t do anything other than perpetuate racism. Wasn’t it Confucius who praised the black-haired people above all others? Wasn’t it Confucius who said white people might benefit from falling under the control of the black-haired people? I’m sure the sayings of Confucius have been dinned into the Chinese.

I remember about 50 years ago facing a test in Anthropology 100 which included the question "on which side of their outrigger canoe does a Trobriand Islander paddle?" I understand that about a half the year guessed correctly and the other half incorrectly. I was outraged and stomped off to confront the lecturer about the inanity of the question. His response has stayed with me. He agreed it was trivia. But he asserted that in future we would be more likely to read our textbooks and observe behaviour more closely because we might be tested on it.
There is a strong likelihood that I would fail the citizenship test, many of the items seem more suitable for a trivia night quiz. But the idea of setting a hurdle to motivate people to attend to citizenship kinds of thing is not all bad. No effort should be spared to revise the booklet and have it contain relevant and useful aspects of citizenship.

The Citizenship Test is purely window dressing to win votes using the fear factor and some warped idea of nationalism and patriotism. Those who see the test as some sort of screening programme to reduce the potential of terrorism are kidding themselves.

Lets look at the reasons one might consider a such a test:

1. To reduce the potential for wrong doers to enter the country, and with it the risk of terrorism.
2. To ensure that immigrants have some knowledge of Australia.
3. To ensure that immigrants have a basic knowledge of English that will allow them to contribute and receive the rewards that a life in Australia might offer.

As far as 2. and 3. go, this sort of knowledge is already being taught in Migrant English programmes which makes one think that the money spent on administering and marketing of the Test would be better spent on the education programmes already in place for new arrivals including support in finding work and accommodation.

The Citizenship Test will not protect us from terrorism. If you were a terrorist and fervent in your desire to wreak havoc on innocent victims, a Citizenship Test is not in anyway going to be a deterrent. Reminding would-be terrorists that Australia's values are different to theirs means zip - a terrorist, with their single minded and politically directed passion already believe their values to be superior. In fact they are more likely to study hard to ensure they get top marks. The whole notion is just ridiculous and one would be forgiven for thinking they were reading a script worthy of Humphrey Appleby of Yes Minister fame.

The Citizenship Test and associated advertising is simply tax-payer funded electioneering in the disguise of government information.

"To all those like thinking Australians (and I'm pleased to see there are lots of them on this particular thread!)

I'm a bit worried we might become the victims of our own success. We've got rid of the boat people. This test of Kevin's will keep out the other undesirables. The Democrats are on their deathbed. Who is going to be left in Oz for us to hate?

Thank God the Greens look like hanging around for a while yet. Don't you just love to hate those tree-hugging, pinko, hippy leftists!

Yours truly
The ugly Australian."

And unfortunately there are far too many of them.

Contrary to the assertions of many leftists, the questions were not obscure ones that migrants have no way of knowing the answer to, as evidenced by the fact that all but one passed.

The left have also argued that the test is implicitly racist, and will alienate new migrants. Two of the interviewed migrants who took the test affirmed the benefits of the test on national television, and none seemed to resent having to take it. They obviously didn’t feel targeted or vilified, as many lefties would have you believe. Rather than being victims, they actually agreed with what was happening.

And indeed, anyone who would resent having to answer some questions about our values wouldn’t have a very good attitude towards migrating to Australia. Migrants have an obligation to obey the laws and respect the culture and values of the country they want to live in permanently. It doesn’t matter if you are Caucasian, Jewish, black or Muslim. All people wishing to immigrate to Australia have to understand that they will have to adapt to our values and our laws, not the other way around.

for more: http://leonbertrand.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-migrants-take-citizenship-test.html

This test is long overdue, and this appalling article harps on what the author thinks the test will not do.

What it will do, is direct people’s attention to what is reasonably expected of them if they wish to be citizens.

The fact that it will not sort out all the people who are unsuitable, may be a reason for not having any one come here until such a method is found, but is certainly not an argument for not having the test, however inadequate it may be.

No doubt, experience will enable the test to be improved.

The only regret, if one is inclined to have regrets, is that it was not initiated many years ago.

miacat in her post says: “ I think I would not have passed the citizen test.”.

What a shame we did not have it then, we would have had one less antisocial.

We have enough home grown subversives, without her, as evidenced by this article.

There is a Sudanese family, who are very welcome, in my area. When they first came here the younger ones would run along beside the local distance runners with big cheery smiles on their faces.

They've been here for a while now and go to a private school.

It is interesting that they are now becoming more like
certain Australians. For instance: They sit in the train and plonk a bag of lollies in the middle and chew on them. They now yell smart alec insults at people passing by - just like Aussie kids.

Maybe we need to look at their culture and see what they are doing correctly. Answer those questions and we may even have a generation who don't spend their energy crying out for drugs to help them feel good.

Lyn Allison makes me cringe.

Australian citizenship is a privilege, not a right. Throughout history, societies have always had the fundamental right to determine who should belong to them. If migrants are unprepared to learn our history, speak our language and embrace our culture, then Australia is under no obligation to hand over its citizenship.

The notion that prospective citizens might be asked to actually demonstrate a commitment to their new nation obviously doesn't fit into Ms. Allison's warped open borders view of the world.

And isn't national citizenship by nature 'discriminatory'? Citizenship is what binds together a community into a nation. It gives the group a common identity, distinct from other nationalities. But Ms. Allison seems to view Australian citizenship as nothing more than a meaningless passport to be thrown around like confetti.

Most Australians support the new citizenship changes. It's only the multi-culti chattering classes who are in vehement opposition. The same high priests and priestesses of the cultural left who have long viewed it as their role to keep the ignorant, bigoted, xenophobic masses under control by excluding them from issues regarding citizenship, multiculturalism and immigration.

I think the idea of such a test has merit, pity my ancestors couldn't have applied it to the first europeans, convicts such as prositutes, murderers, thieves etc that invaded our country 230 yrs ago.

This country is already over crowded by about 21,500 million so we should make every effort to reduce the number of people calling this country home, and deport those who refuse to learn Aboriginal (Australian).

No white person living here has the right to tell anyone else not to come here, because its not your land you are just illegally occupying it.

Yindin, the indigenous inhabitants of this continent never had a country. Indeed, the notion of nationhood was alien to the disparate nomadic tribes of this continent. Nor did they have a single 'Aboriginal' language. As for learning 'Aboriginal', that is somewhat difficult considering no written Aboriginal language existed until Europeans arrived with English.

The test doesn't stop people from entering Australia, so why do people argue that it is there to screen out undesirables? It is possible to live in Australia while not being a citizen.

As for Australian values, who cares what they are? I don't and I consider myself Australian and have been an Australian citizen since 1991 after emmigrating from the UK at the age of five. I also think that this point of view is more Australian than anything espoused on this page or anything that can be 'tested' for.

If I don't care about what it means to be Australian I wouldn't want someone else to have to jump through hoops and have some sort of warped idea about what it means to be Australian when they probably don't care either.

It's difficult or impossible to mount a case for this country being overcrowded. We may have a few large cities but take a look beyond them Yindin.

I welcome the line of thinking that immigrants to Oz should be "familiarzied" with the nature of the country they have chosen to live in. I doubt though that the test is adequate to ensure they become so. The need for such a familiarization is illustrated by the previous post I think. "Who cares" what Australian values are you say. Well I do and so do a lot of others. Maybe if immigrants as a whole cared more there wouldn't be the need to introduce this type of course in the first place. We are not the only country who insists on such a program. If I were an immigrant I'd welcome and not be surprised by being required to learn about the counrty I was moving to. What's the surprise in being asked?

And Pauline Hanson doesn't have to get a mention here. Her views are not relevant to this debate. As with all extremeist views, they are only of interest to other extremists.

It's difficult or impossible to mount a case for this country being overcrowded. We may have a few large cities but take a look beyond them Yindin.

I welcome the line of thinking that immigrants to Oz should be "familiarzied" with the nature of the country they have chosen to live in. I doubt though that the test is adequate to ensure they become so. The need for such a familiarization is illustrated by the previous post I think. "Who cares" what Australian values are you say. Well I do and so do a lot of others. Maybe if immigrants as a whole cared more there wouldn't be the need to introduce this type of course in the first place. We are not the only country who insists on such a program. If I were an immigrant I'd welcome and not be surprised by being required to learn about the counrty I was moving to. What's the surprise in being asked?

And Pauline Hanson doesn't have to get a mention here. Her views are not relevant to this debate. As with all extremist views, they are only of interest to other extremists.

Dresdener, what a racist you are of course we had a countries, we also had seperate languages, laws and religion, thousands of years before your people in europe. As for nomadic and tribal there is no such thing in the Aboriginal context, most Aboriginal groups travelled in seasons or were static and were not tribal as we had no formal leadership on the mainland.

Its clear you know nothing about the history of Aboriginal people in this land, because a written language was unneccessary for survival. Also the great majority of europeans who have came to this country before WW1 couldn't read or write their own language either.

Ditch what sort of moran are you? In the 2030 years since european innvasion your people have destroyed the land with your greed and placed us all in peril with the misuse of water. So importing any more to crowd the cities or live on welfare is just plain stupid.

I am not an "indigenous" person so therefore just a another "foreign" invader! I am certainly not the "Australian" or Howardite drone!
I liked my grandparents and their attitudes, I liked listening to them talk, the depression and the community they had.

Living in Redfern and watching the Rabbitohs training at Redfern oval, going to the "Greek" fish shop and Italian "dellie" as a kid.

Knowing I had relatives I would never see, because they died in WW11.
Having been brought up to believe in a "fair go" and your right to a "fair days pay for a fair days work" these things fought for and won through difficulty and sacrifice, oh yeah, that's is the Australian I love, and one that I have tried to be, fair dinkum!

Hi porpie I know how you feel mate, I lost a grandfather in wwi, uncle in ww2 brother in Vietnam and was severly wounded on active service in the army. With the exception of myself, all the others served and died without the rights we take for granted as citezans, and it makes me sick to the stomach that our sacrifice has not been mentioned in history or in this test.

Radical suggestion - we make all residents sit the test.
That being unlikely to happen I suggest that Lyn Allison and those who agree with her read "Cultural Literacy" (the author's name escapes me for the moment) in which an argument is made for the need to have a certain body of knowledge in order to sufficiently understand the community in which you reside. Without that knowledge you cannot participate fully in it.

As I stated previously that as a "CONSTITUTIONALIST" I am aware that the Commonwealth of Australia is in principle racist, and so the States, as it is approved for this in Subsection 51(xxvi) of the Constitution. Personally I oppose racism but have to concede that constitutionally it is permissible. Getting rid of Subsection 51(xxvi) might then be the better way to go!

While Kevin Andrews introduced the “(Australian) citizenship test” it is a sheer and utter nonsense, as learning who was a cricketer has got nothing to do with current cultural/moral conduct and legal postion of Australians.

While the test seems to make out that Edmund Barton was the first Prime Minister, the truth is that Lyne was the first one commissioned on 18 December 1900 and when he handed his commission back then Edmund Barton was given the commission on 24 December 1900, as the second (not first) person to be Prime Minister!

The “citizenship test” neither does expose constitutional reality that “citizenship” is constitutionally a State legislative power dealing with political status (including franchise) and nothing to do with nationality, as we are and remain "subjects of the British Crown”. Just that politicians pretent otherwise!

If we expect others to learn about Australians and heritage would it then not better that we teach our politicians some constitutional facts?

My book, published in July 2006, “INSPECTOR-RIKATI® & What is -Australian way of life- really” makes it very clear that it means that every person of whatever religion, colour of skin, nationality, etc, can live his/her life in whatever way he/she desires, including customs and traditions provided it is within the provisions Australian laws!

See people as equal and we all are better off!

Yindin:
Good on you mate!...It is time that somebody spoke out about the real issues here in Australia in this day and age!
We need to disregard all this rubbish about Immigration Tests and tackle one of our REAL problems. We already have too high a population commensurate with our nationwide infrastructure. It is time to close the door, at least in the short term, until we can sort out our own problems and improve our infrastructure accordingly!

The general public is currently being bombarded with news-media photos showing the "disgusting" conditions within the confines of some of the MANY Aboriginal Communities and Town Camps that are scattered across the country. I notice that the public never see or hear of the "model" Communities,....probably because that would be counterproductive to the current political push to excise the people from their land! It denies the fact that there are dark people out there who do have pride and respect for their country and their environment!

The public should be made aware that the greatest majority of Aborigines "existing" in Town Camps were rounded up out of the desert areas ( where they were living quite happily pursuing their cultural ways and hurting nobody!), shipped to conveniently located Town Camps and expected to live in harmony with members of many and varied skin clan members,....all this under the guise of assimilitating the Aborogine into our white society,....a society who`s members generally turn away or cross the street at the sight of an approaching Aborigine,....and we have the audacity to pretend that we are NOT REALLY racist!!

Our country has to come to grips with this particular problem. We cannot simply ignore the Aboriginal population and hope that they will either die out or breed themselves out of existence.Regardless of what the "white supremists" in our society may say, the Aborigines were here long before us and they deserve GENUINE help and must be provided with the guidance and humanitarian assistance neccesary to elevate them from the mire in which a large majority are currently existing as geographical vitims of history!