Chapter 1 - Introduction
Background
1.1
The Australian Citizenship Bill 2005 (the Bill)
and Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Bill 2005 was
referred by the Senate on 30 November for report by 27 February 2006. The proposed Bills are intended to
replace the Australian Citizenship Act
1948 (Cth) (the 1948 Act), which governs the acquisition, cessation and
resumption of Australian citizenship.
1.2
The possible redrafting of the 1948 Act and amendment
of some of its key provisions has been in the public domain for some time.[1] In
2000, the Australian Citizenship Council (ACC) presented its report entitled Australian Citizenship for a New Century. Most
of the ACC's recommended legislative changes
were made by the Australian Citizenship
Legislation Amendment Act 2002 (the 2002 Act).[2]
The ACC also recommended that
the existing 1948 Act be redrafted to remove inconsistencies and improve
clarity and ease of use.
1.3
On 7 July 2004, the Hon. Gary Hardgrave MP, the then
Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, gave a speech to the Sydney
Institute in which he outlined the government's proposed changes to the 1948
Act.[3] On 8
September 2005 the Prime Minister, Mr
Howard, announced stronger anti terrorism
laws.[4] In relation to citizenship the
Prime Minister said the government would work on visa and citizenship security
and character checking processes and move immediately to extend the residency
requirement.
Conduct of the Inquiry
1.4
The Committee advertised the inquiry in The Australian
newspaper on 7 December 2005
and also wrote to a number of interested individuals and organisations inviting submissions by 16 January 2006. Details of the inquiry, the
Bills and the associated documents were placed on the Committee's website.
1.5
On 6 January
2006 the secretariat provided information about the inquiry to the
Consular Policy Branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
for distribution to Australian overseas missions. All DFAT posts were advised
of the inquiry and encouraged to contribute to informing Australians overseas
about the inquiry by using the Committee's official materials.
1.6
The Committee received 67 submissions, two are
confidential and the remaining 65 were placed on the Committee's website. Among
the 67 submission were numerous letters from individuals, including children,
expressing views about the Bills. These letters were grouped into seven broad
categories and adopted as standard form letters. The list of submissions is
contained in Appendix 1.
1.7
The Committee held a public hearing in Melbourne
at the Victoria Parliament House on Monday
30 January 2006. A second public hearing was held on Monday 6 February 2006 at Parliament
House, Canberra. Seventeen
witnesses appeared in person, by teleconference and video link. A list of witnesses
is at Appendix 2. Copies of the Hansard transcript of proceedings are available
through the internet at http://aph.gov.au/hansard or at the
Committee's website at:
https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/citizenship/hearings/index.htm.
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