highlyeccentric | Amy writes to her member for parliament... (Reply)

In an extremely uncharacteristic burst of political involvement, possibly just a new form of procrastination, I have written to my local MP, liberal Bob Baldwin, expressing concerns about the new citizenship tests.

Dear Mr Baldwin:
As a voting citizen of the Paterson electorate, I would just like to register my concern regarding the new citizenship testing program. I discovered the two-question sample test available in the Sydney Morning Herald online last night and again this morning, and "took" the test myself off the top of my head. I am a third year university student, and I once recived a band 6 (the highest possible band) in my year ten "History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship" exam. Nevertheless, I only "passed" this test by three questions. I don't know the floral emblem of Australia- i didn't even know we had a floral emblem! And I fail to see how knowing this is going to make a future citizen more qualified to become an Australian. All it proves is that they can memorise facts and dates.
I am pleased to read, again in the SMH, that the citizenship handbook does include an "honest" account of the brutal treatment of Aboriginal people after the settlement of Australia, and acknowledges that "Australia faces an ongoing challenge to ensure that the Aboriginals fully share in the life and prosperity of the nation." However, I wonder how prospective citizens are expected to understand the problem if, as the SMH reports, "Aboriginal history before Europeans arrived is dispensed with in four sentences, yet a subsequent blow-by-blow description of settlement, industrial development and sporting achievement runs to12 pages." Were the indigenous community consulted about this handbook? I feel incoming citizens ought to be better informed about the indigenous relationship with the land, the social systems of indigenous society, and the struggles that the indigenous community face in preserving their heritage, as well as our "ongoing challenge" to share "life and prosperity" with them.
I acknowledge that I have not seen the handbook itself- I would be interested to read it, if it were available online- but I am also concerned by the apparent lack of attention to Australia's great history of multiculturalism. Surely it would be more useful for immigrants to know that they will find, in Australia, the largest Greek community in the world outside of Greece, that it is for them to be able to recognise the floral emblem? I am also concerned about the possibility that citizenship testing may be used, now or in the future, to screen out particular racial, religious or cultural groups. I hope that this is not the immediate intention of the Federal Government, but I encourage you and your party to ensure that, if legislation is passed instituting citizenship testing, it is written in such a way as to preclude discrimination by this or any future government in selecting future citizens. I have grown up glad to be living in a great multi-cultural society, and would be deeply sad to find this reversed.

Sincerely, Amy Brown