Time to take a citizenship test...

[highlyeccentric]

which reads like year nine history, but anyway. This is the list of sample questions found on the SMH

1. In what year did Federation take place? 1901 correct, thank you for playing!
2. Which day of the year is Australia Day? 25th Jan apparently it's the 26th!
3. Who was the first Prime Minister of Australia? Barton???? maybe??? yes, Barton
4. What is the first line of Australia's national anthem? Australians all eat sausages let us rejoice
5. What is the floral emblem of Australia? WTF? we have a floral emblem? wattle, apparently
6. What is the population of Australia? somewhere round the 20 million mark, i guess 21 millionish
7. In what city is the Parliament House of the Commonwealth Parliament located? canberra
8. Who is the Queen's representative in Australia? gov. general
9. How are Members of Parliament chosen? by election
10. Who do Members of Parliament represent? erm, technically, their electorate.
11. After a federal election, who forms the new government? the elected party? What kind of question is this?
12. What are the colours on the Australian flag? blue, red, white. someone care to explain why knowing this is important?
13. Who is the head of the Australian Government? at what level? do you mean the Queen? or the PM? we mean the PM
14. What are the three levels of government in Australia? council, state, federal
15. In what year did the European settlement of Australia start? 1878? 1788. i knew that
16. Serving on a jury if required is a responsibility of Australian citizenship: true or false? true
17. In Australia, everyone is free to practice the religion of their choice, or practice no religion: true of false? true
18. To be elected to the Commonwealth Parliament you must be an Australian citizen: true or false? um. true, i guess
19. As an Australian citizen, I have the right to register my baby born overseas as an Australian citizen: true or false? how should i know? seen me giving birth overseas lately? true, apparently
20. Australian citizens aged 18 years or over are required to enrol on the electoral register: true or false? true

Comments

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

I got 15 right too. The ones I stuffed up were:

3. Had no clue. Was too busy eating twisties and passing notes with friends during year 10 social studies I think :$

5. I picked banksia, whoops. On reflection, I remember that's the floral emblem of my university.

11. I thought that was a really ambiguous question - didn't know whether it meant who would actually *be* the govt, or who would swear them in :S My answer to the former would be "the ones who won the election" :P

18. I guessed it might be true, but I didn't know

19. Interesting, I didn't know that. Must see about getting Wee Beastie made an Aus citizen when he's born)

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

what *I* want to know is what any of this has to do with the Australian Values the PM is touting.

I would vociferously oppose values-based screening, of course, but dammit, if you're going to do a thing, do it properly!

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. Is one of the values: "Must know obscure bits of Australian government history that actual average Australians probably don't know off the top of their heads but would go and look up in a book if they ever needed to know them"?

And where are these values to be found anyway? I couldn't find the draft document anywhere.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

no, neither could I

[lepsdavid.livejournal.com]

David's fun fact for the day!

Federal and state/territory levels of government are in the Australian constitution. The Local level is not mentioned and in fact only exists as a result of state level acts of parliament. As such it could be logically argued that there are only two levels of government in Australia. With local government simply being like a more independent government department of the state/territory level of governance. After all to abolish all local governments all that is required is for a state to change its legislation. Where as federal and state are constitutionally created and protected (though here less than you might think for a state)

[flamearrows.livejournal.com]

Actually, the state governments are more protected by virtue of having the residual powers of the constitution - i.e. everything not mentioned by s51. But due to, well, politics, and some interpretation on the part of the High Court, power has tended to flow into the federal government.

Just if you were interested.

[blackbuttoneyes.livejournal.com]

Phew! As a fairly self=loathing American I did way better then I expected to. 13 out of 20. And I even knew the wattle one from Monty Python (usually not a great source for accurate historical knowledge but it helps sometimes). But then again, questions like 'Who does this elected body represent?' have fairly obvious answers. =)

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

congratulations! you can now become an Australian Idiot!

[blackbuttoneyes.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! That's my number two dream, right after becoming a Mediocre Medievalist!!

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

well, you could try becoming a Mediocre Medievalist in Australia... one would *think* that would be easy, but in fact, since we have so few places for medievalists, one must be a Quite Good medievalist to get a job.

*is depressed by her lack of employment prospects*

[blackbuttoneyes.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Here at NYU there's a medievalist around every corner. I'm going to have to fight off hordes of them to get a job one day.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

there are still more medievalists here than there are jobs :(

Sydney Uni is the last uni in the country still teaching medieval languages.
Just say I were all growed up and wanted to come back here and teach. The current full-time anglo-saxonist is still a young man. So by the time he retires, there will probably be a queue god knows how long of us wanting to come back here. Starting with my current tutor Melanie; then Em, a current PHD student who doesn't get to tutor because Melanie does it all; either Katie or David (current honours students) may continue with Anglo-saxonism; and then there are two or three students in the class one level below me who will have caught me up by that time.

The other option is to develop a familiarity with Middle English, so as to increase my chances of becoming a general medieval literature teacher.
it is depressing to think about this now, i feel.

[blackbuttoneyes.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Yeah, I wouldn't think about that too much now. Things could always change! Plus I never think it's a good idea to try and imagine more than 5 years in the future. My brain goes wonky.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

yes, things could always change.

the rate education is going in this country, things are more likely to change for the worse... The Centre is always on the brink of collapsing.

on the bright side, we do have a much larger number of prospective hons. students than JP was expecting for next year :)

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

aaargh! i'm sorry, that's a really pessimistic whinge thingumy.

my excuse is, i was up till three last night spending quality time with an anglo-saxon verb. that sort of thing will make you pessimistic about everything.

[blackbuttoneyes.livejournal.com]

Haha! Totally understandable. I myself am at jury duty today, and also feeling very pessimistic. Booo!!!

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

oh, that is pessimable :I

erk. just erk.

oh, dear, i just realised that now i'm of age i can be called up for jury duty. what a depressing thought. i liked being underage better ;)

[blackbuttoneyes.livejournal.com]

Seriously? Being underaged is WAY better. Less responsibilities! Though I was dismissed today so all is well now.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

indeed. *sighs* i still haven't adjusted to being Growed Up, and it's been nearly two years.
It was also much easier to lead a quiet social life when i was underaged. "no, sorry, can't come out, i'm underage". end of story.

glad to hear you've escaped trial ;)

[blackbuttoneyes.livejournal.com]

I personally don't think it's ever a good idea to adjust to being Growed Up. I like being Not Growed Up, and I'd like to hold onto it as long as humanly possible. Although I agree, it is way harder to pass up invitations to night time raucusness now.

[phrasemuffin.livejournal.com]

I got 14. Would have had more if I could have gotten Pan's Labyrinth out of my head long enough to get the anthem playing (q4), if I hadn't gotten Parkes and Barton mixed up (q3), if I could have decided between the wattle and warratah (q5), if I could have zoned in closer than ACT (silly brain) (q7), if my brain hadn't tripped over surgeon-general and gotten its foot stuck there (q8), or if I actually cared about the government enough to understand the question (q11).

Silly mistakes, most of them. Silly mistakes from a silly brain.

*runs back to assessments*

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

surgeon-general! LOL!

yes, well, i was clearly having a silly brain day for dates when i took the test (qs 2 and 15)
so maybe we're just both silly

[flamearrows.livejournal.com]

The head of the Australian Government is actually the Queen.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

apparently the citizenship handbook disagrees with you.

i think they mean "who is the head of the government which has been elected", but still. very ambigious question.

[flamearrows.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but even if it were phrased that way it would still be wrong. Because the PM doesn't actually wield any power that would make him the actual head of an elected government - the entirety of his/her authority stems from tradition and custom.