Stepping up its opposition to the Federal Governments proposed changes to the citizenship law, the Labor party has started an online petition which, the party says, will be presented to Parliament.
The party caucus last week unanimously decided to vote against the Australian Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Requirements for Australian Citizenship and Other Measures) Bill 2017 that was brought before parliament on June 15.
The government wants to introduce a mandatory stand-alone English language test and increase the waiting period for permanent residents from one year to four years before they can become Australian citizens, the measure Labor is staunchly opposed to.
Labor frontbencher and Shadow Minister for Citizenship, Tony Burke told SBS Punjabi that the measures were designed to create a new class of second-class Australians.
The party says its online petition to Protect Australias Citizenship has gathered over ten thousand signatures, and it will be presented to Parliament after the winter break in order to show how many people are concerned with the legislation changes.
The Turnbull Governments new citizenship laws are unfair and seek to prevent a whole class of people who live here permanently from ever becoming citizens, the petition reads.
The Turnbull Government wants to change the citizenship laws by introducing an English test at an elitist university-entry level and stopping people from making a pledge of allegiance to Australia, even though they are living here permanently, it further reads.
But, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton last week deemed Labors claim that the government was asking migrants to demonstrate University-level English proficiency, a smokescreen.
Contrary to Labor's false claims, the IELTS Academic test is not required for migration or citizenship purposes, Mr Dutton said in a statement. The General Training test is accepted.
University admission normally requires Academic IELTS exam in which the reading and writing modules are different from those in the General Training IELTS.
The government wants prospective Australian citizens to score a 6-Band score in the General IELTS exam which is acceptable for immigration purpose.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced these changes to the citizenship law on April 20 this year. Labor leader Bill Shorten at the time said the changes were reasonable.
I think it is reasonable to look for English-language proficiency, and I think that its reasonable to have some period of time, waiting time, before you become an Australian citizen, Mr Shorten said at the time.
If the law is passed, the changes will apply to all the applicants who apply for citizenship on or after the day the changes were announced.
