After the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed he was mulling an overhaul of the citizenship test, Senator David Leyonhjelm has voiced his support for putting migrants through an extreme vetting before they become Australian citizens.
According to News Limited, Senator Leyonhjelm has proposed a 15-question test to examine attitudes towards family, sex, women and religion that he believes will weed out those who are not willing to integrate into the Australian society.
According to Senator Leyonhjelm, citizenship test should have the following questions.
Senator David Leyonhjelm Source: SBS News
1. Should there be a law banning slavery?
2. Should tax obligations differ depending on a person’s religion?
3. Should there be a law banning female circumcision?
4. Should there be a law banning women from:
- voting?
- being elected to government?
- driving?
- showing her head hair, arms or legs in public?
5. Should there be a law banning a husband from:
- hitting his wife?
- having sex with his wife without the wife’s consent?
6. Should there be a law banning a wife from:
- leaving the home against the wishes of the husband?
- driving against the wishes of the husband?
- showing her head hair, arms or legs in public against the wishes of the husband?
7. Should there be a law banning adults from:
- drinking alcohol?
- gambling?
- having sex with a child?
- having sex outside marriage?
- holding hands or kissing someone of the same sex in public?
- homosexual acts and relationships?
- owning or viewing pornography?
8. Should there be a law banning children being married?
9. Should there be a law banning a person from refusing to marry according to a parent’s instruction?
10. Should there be a law banning divorce?
11. Where a mother and father of a child are not married, should there be a law granting custody to the father?
12. Should there be a law giving preference to men over women regarding the receipt of inheritances?
13. Should there be a law banning the schooling of boys and girls in the same classroom?
14. Should there be a law banning:
- the charging of interest on loans?
- people abandoning their religion?
- blasphemy?
15. Should the punishment for killing be reduced if the killer says it was done for family honour?
“I believe we should apply extreme vetting to applicants for citizenship.
“It is only citizens who elect our government and determine what kind of society we create. We should therefore only grant citizenship, and the rights that come with it, to those who have contributed to and assimilated into our society, and who share our values,” he told news.com.au.
Earlier this year, the Liberal Democratic Senator backed calls for change, saying Australia should look at Switzerland as a potential model where there is a sponsorship program and fellow citizens have to vouch for applicants.
He had said the citizenship test should cover people's links to the community, work history and fundamental liberal democratic values such as free speech, equality before the law, rights of women and respect for diversity.
In 2014, he told SBS that all migrants to Australia should pay $50,000 to raise extra revenue for the government, while a higher burden of proof should be placed on genuine refugees.
He had said becoming an Australian citizen should be more difficult as some cultures were incompatible with the Australian way of life.
He has also called for limiting the welfare payments to the citizens alone.
“Raising the bar on citizenship would lead to Australians being more accepting of immigration, particularly if access to welfare was reserved for citizens,” he said.
“It would show that anyone arriving in Australia does not automatically become an Australian or gain access to taxpayer-funded services.”
