While the citizenship status of Australia's parliamentarians has dominated the news for months, a Government bill to make it harder for people to get citizenship was under quiet scrutiny.
Proposed changes include a longer waiting period for re-applicants and including questions about Australian values and a university-level English exam in the citizenship test.
Now, a report tabled in parliament and a crucial Senate crossbench voting bloc indicates any changes may still be a ways from reality.
The Turnbull Government's controversial plans to make it harder to become an Australian citizen now look unlikely to be passed in the near future.
A report from a Coalition-dominated Senate committee says Australia could be denied valuable migrants, particularly if the controversial English language test is implemented.
Liberal senator and committee leader Ian Macdonald has told Sky News he believes the bill is heading in the right direction but needs further work.
Critics of the language exam say the bill unfairly targets immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds.
But Senator Macdonald says those people are, as he puts it, cooking up "conspiracy theories."
Labor immigration spokesman Tony Burke has welcomed the news the bill would be blocked, saying the proposed changes are elitist and potentially harmful.
“Citizenship is meant to be the way we build ourselves as a society, not the way we divide.
“The senate inquiry received more than 14,000 public submissions but only two were in support of government’s proposal.
“And there is a reason why this government is in situation where its citizenship changes should be withdrawn,” he said.
The Nick Xenophon Team has decided it will use its three votes with Labor and the Greens to block the bill in the Senate, though.
That decision comes after an inquiry hearing from various migrant-community representatives from around the country.
The party's deputy leader, Sterling Griff, has told SBS the party cannot accept the package as presented.
While the Nick Xenophon Team is not completely ruling out the bill, he says it wants the English test less restrictive and the values test established by parliament, not the minister.
