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.

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.

If the test included the question “who coined the phrase ‘punishers and straighteners’?”….

The correct answer would be: a knowing, wilful and very important Soviet spy!

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.

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.

C’mon people, the list should be extended to include Kerry Packers kidney too.

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.

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.