The dense booklet, which was overseen by former prime minister John Howard, describes the uses of the stump-jump plough, the emergence of the Heidelberg school of art, the location of Phar Lap’s heart and depicts Australia’s first governor, Captain Arthur Phillip, as “firm but humane”.
It’d be nice if the Rudd government grasped the bit between its teeth and just scrapped the citizenship test. Do we really need a Rudd-era one to supplant the Howard-era farce? Would anyone care except Planet Janet?
Props to Petro Georgiou for speaking up on this again.
I’m fairly sure Chris Evans – the Immigration Minister – doesn’t believe it has any value. What will be gained by setting up a review panel? And, incidentally, why is there a “former Olympian” on the panel anyway? To put a word in for teh sport? To carry the torch for that warm and fuzzy feeling of the unity of humankind we get when we think about sporting contests? If there’s any political pain in getting rid of such a nonsense, surely taking it now rather than stretching out the debate would be good politics. After all, when you’re riding so high in the polls, you can afford to take a few decisions which might be right but not universally acclaimed.
And, just think – admirers of Sir Hubert Opperman and Walter Lindrum would no doubt applaud!
Elsewhere: Tim Dunlop says “Just dump it!”
Oh no! That’s “sportcrime”. Now you’ll have to be denounced by old men in daggy green tracksuits!
I can think of two reasons for the independent review panel:
1) to get strong independent advice to dump it, thus creating a politically painless method of getting rid of it without politicising the thing further with ideological arguments
2) to actually turn it into a decent, credible test that helps prepare people rather than a ‘gotcha!’ style sports-laden peice of drivel (albeit with some minor mention of sport one presumes with the ex-olympian on it). Canada for eg is generally regarded as having a credible test that if I recall correctly is accompanied by classes in essentially Candian Civics, that greatly help prepare wannabe-citizens. Even the USA’s test is seen as generally positive, being I’m told by my US partner an open-book ‘test’ accompanied by classes that is much more about educating and familiarising immigrants with the US, and is generally regarded as producing immigrant citizens who are far more knowledgeable and appreciative of the good aspects of the USA than natives are.
I really don’t mind which it is, as long as if they keep it, it’s turned into something of genuine utility to new citizens and Australia. My aforementioned US partner sat the test last year – it took her a little under 3 minutes as an educated english speaker, and mercifully her random question selection didn’t mention teh Bradman and teh Melbourne Cup date. But she did have to waste 2 hours of her life learning meaningless and insulting drivel like “Sydney has more rugby clubs per capita than any other Australian city” and a ridiculous number of pages devoted to sport, and an expectation that you memorise a few basic government facts “who’s your local federal member in the lower house” with absolutely minimal explanation of how our government processes actually work – or voting systems, what they mean etc etc.
in sum – total reform or throw it out; and hopefully the indpendent review will facilitate one or the other.
Idiotic to even set up a review committee. I might sende PM Rudd an e-mail saying : Don Bradman’s dead, and so’s John Howard.
Or something.
WE PUT RUDD IN TO GET RID OF THIS KIND OF CRAP AND HE’S DOING NOTHING1
But do we really want people in this country who don’t know that Gala Supreme won the 1973 Melbourne Cup?
Paul Burns, you must remember that Rudd promised to match lots of rodent inspired bribes to win the election. He is diligently looking at every promise he made, in the heat of the moment, to win government and is working out how to deal with it.
You would not want to let down the punters who voted you in, would you?
That would be the way towards a one term government, surely.
Dump it.
What sort of country would we become if, in case of constitutional crisis, we couldn’t find Phar Lap’s heart?
C’mon people, the list should be extended to include Kerry Packers kidney too.
Proctor: All right, here’s your last question. What was the cause of the Civil War?
Apu: Actually, there were numerous causes. Aside from the obvious schism between the abolitionists and the anti-abolitionists, there were economic factors, both domestic and inter–
Proctor: Wait, wait… just say slavery.
Apu: Slavery it is, sir.
Capt Arthur Phillip “firm but humane”, eh? Nothing about his personal regard for Rousseau’s philosophies, eh? Or his “Noble Savage” regard for our indigenous people? What about equality & fairness (eg in rations)? Or any other of Capt AP’s nasty Bolshi ideas? (OK, Bolshi is an anachronism; but we’re in Kulturkampf territory here, so you get the general idea!)
I thought not.
Howard’s pushing of “Oz History” was credible only if “his personal take on” was inserted before “Oz”. The chances of genuine investigation – in a publication overseen by Howard & Windschuttle – of the Great Libertarian / Egalitarian Experiment (which succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest expectations; well enough, in fact, for people to commit crimes to be transported- see parliamentary reports & “Preamble” to the Bigge Report), and of its leading role in international work-place relations, worker conditions, wages & living standards (which sure as s**t wasn’t going to get a genuine guernsey in Howard’s WorkChoices tests), were always lower than Buckley’s & Nunn’s.
Howard wasn’t just the man who “broke the nation’s heart”, he betrayed Phillip, Hunter, King, Bligh, Macquarie …. just about everyone, every initiative, every humanitarian action …. all the way down to WorkChoices. That’s the way history ought to remember him.
Well said, DeeCee @ 9.
One mustn’t forget, however, that all our radical, democratic advances were made in the face of strong opposition from the squattocracy, bourgeoisie, nobility, conservatives etc. the straiteners v. the visionaries as Manning Clark more or less put it. Immensely unpleasant as they are, the Howardistas are sometimes necessary to remind us of what we really value. (Though one, not eleven years would have been more than enough.Just enough to wake the ALP up to itself. After all, they did lay the groundwork for almost everything disgusting Howard did.)
btw, notice you studied history at my alma mater, albeit about five years earlier than me.
The test smacks of good ol US of A metooism salute the flag every day etc get rid of it asap
If the test included the question “who coined the phrase ‘punishers and straighteners’?”….
A lot of people would wrongly pick Paul Keating if that was one of the options!
Thanks, paul @ #10. UNE OzHist, top of the 70s. Tony Yarwood, Miriam Dixon (newly appointed, I think), Bruce Mitchell (did eventually publish that book) and the inimitable Russ Ward. Couldn’t be near in the same room without a “robust debate” on any/ every topic in OzHist. Electric & magic.
BTW, did you notice: The Doons & John Ridd to Crippen … Old Bailey Online – The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 .. A searchable online edition of the court proceedings with supporting articles and bibliography. Also known as the Old Bailey Sessions Papers. http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
I’ll finally get to check out whether the claims that led to the Bigge Report really were true, not just another Macarthur Clique plot.
The correct answer would be: a knowing, wilful and very important Soviet spy!
Someone I know well is a call centre supervisor for DIC and the centre is devoted to calls relating to the citizenship test. The universal commonsense assumption among those who administer and administrate the test it that it is an English language test pure and simple, the content is regarded as risible but largely irrelevant since those who don’t pass it are not white, not literate, not competent with the English language, and quite often have spent up to $800 of their own funds on dodgy pre-test training programs offered by private operators.
My comment at 15 is lampooning a certain south-east Queensland newspaper and its former editor, who need not be named.
DeeDee @ 15,
Was taught by all of them, good friends with Russel and Sandy, got on well with Miriam but only started to have a lot to do with her as a postgrad.
Absolutely no comment on Bruce Mitchell.
I reckon scrap the citizenship test. All intending new citizens have to eat a Vegemite sandwich or Vegemite on toast before they sign the forms. If they can’t finish it, they don’t get naturalisation.
Keep it, but make it more relevant.
Every other country has one. Many of the test haters are only trying to expunge any trace of Howard from history anyway. There’s also the other lot who simply despise Australia and think we should genuflect in front of anyone who would deign to become a citizen of this country.
If you don’t put up any barriers to citizenship, it will be deemed worthless, like anything else given away for free.
PaulW@20: “Every other country has one.”
Prove it.
“Many of the test haters are only trying to expunge any trace of Howard from history anyway.”
An impossible, but worthy task
“There’s also the other lot who simply despise Australia and think we should genuflect in front of anyone who would deign to become a citizen of this country.”
Total drivel. If not, then prove it. There is a difference between not genuflecting in front of someone, and not insulting their intelligence. Learn it.
“If you don’t put up any barriers to citizenship, it will be deemed worthless, like anything else given away for free.”
Let’s see. Even without the test, you need family connections, a clean record with the police, a job offer and corporate sponsor, independent wealth, or sought-after skills, before you are allowed in as a permanent resident. And pay loads of money and go through lots of paperwork to apply. Then, you need to remain law-abiding for another couple of years, pay more money and fill in more applications to become a citizen and get the vote.
I think all of that constitutes much more of a filter than some little quiz about sports triv and who biffed who in somebody else’s war.
My citizenship didn’t exactly come free.
Learn what your talking about before mouthing off.