CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1
On 25 June
2009, the Senate referred the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship
Test review and Other Measures) Bill 2009 to the Senate Legal and
Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 7 September
2009.
1.2
The Bill was introduced in the Senate on 25 June 2009 by Senator the
Hon. Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water, at the request of
Senator the Hon. John Faulkner, Minister for Defence, and Senator the Hon.
Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.
1.3
The Bill seeks to amend the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 to
make changes to the Australian Citizenship Program, and in particular, the
citizenship test implemented by the former government. $123.6 million was
[provided over 5 years in the 2007/08 Budget to establish and implement the
test.[1]
According to the Explanatory memorandum, the Bill aims to achieve the
following, much of which was recommended by the Australian Citizenship Test
Review Committee (CTRC). The Bill:
-
provides that certain applicants may be eligible for citizenship
without sitting the citizenship test if, at the time of application, they have
a physical or mental incapacity that is as a result of suffering torture or
trauma outside Australia;
-
provides that the citizenship test must be successfully completed
within a specified period;
-
provides that to be eligible for citizenship by conferral,
applicants who are under 18 years of age must be permanent residents at both
the time of application and the time of decision; and
-
streamlines the application process so that citizenship testing
and citizenship application would usually take place in one visit to
immigration offices.
The committee notes that both hard and electronic copies of the
Explanatory Memorandum for the Bill contained misnumbered Item numbers, and
understands that this error will be rectified at third reading stage.
Conduct of the inquiry
1.4
The committee
advertised the inquiry in The Australian newspaper on 1 July 2009, and
invited submissions by 31 July 2009. Details of the inquiry, the Bill, and associated documents were placed on the committee's website. The committee also wrote
to over 100 organisations and individuals inviting submissions.
1.5
The committee
received 21 submissions which are listed at Appendix 1. Submissions were placed
on the committee's website for ease of access by the public.
1.6
The committee
held a public hearing in Melbourne on 27 August 2009, A list of witnesses who
appeared at the hearings is at Appendix 2 and copies of the Hansard transcript
are available through the Internet at https://www.aph.gov.au/hansard.
Acknowledgement
1.7
The committee
thanks the organisations and individuals who made submissions and gave evidence
at the public hearing.
Note on references
1.8
References in
this report are to individual submissions as received by the committee, not to
a bound volume. References to the committee Hansard are to the proof Hansard:
page numbers may vary between the proof and the official Hansard transcript.
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