Proposed citizenship test is absurd
Australia coped very well in the past waves of migration from non-English speaking countries without requiring absurd tests of English proficiency.
THE divisive proposal to require applicants for citizenship to have a university level of proficiency in English should be rejected.
Australia coped very well in the past waves of migration from non-English speaking countries without requiring absurd tests of English proficiency.
There must be a great many people living on the Coast whose families contain people who arrived here as migrants with little English yet who went on to contribute a lot as citizens.
My wife's family arrived in Nambour in the early 1950s with very little English, developed a farm through hard work and became citizens (subjects actually in those days) without having to pass some language test.
My wife started Grade 1 in Nambour speaking almost no English, yet went on to spend many years teaching at Nambour Primary.
Peter Dutton would tell you these people should not have become citizens.
The Dutton proposals are insulting and offensive and are intended purely as a divisive tactic.
CLIVE NEWTON
Nambour
