Do you follow the way of Bradman? My oath

WHETHER prospective Australian citizens are aware of Sir Donald Bradman's illustrious cricketing career should not be the determining factor in the Rudd Government's decision to review the qualifying test.

A knowledge of Australia's sports history is important but an understanding of the nature of our society - and an acceptance of the values of our society - are far more critical.

So, too, is a knowledge of our language - English, for those who need reminding.

After standing in a queue for a passport inspection before flying out of Sydney for the US in late 2006, an Immigration Department officer blamed the lengthy process on language problems - with Australian passport holders who could not understand basic English.

Surely, that lack of competency should be of far greater concern than any failure to bone up on the records set by Sir Donald, Sir Hubert Opperman or Walter Lindrum.

However, the Bradman question gets picked up by the media as if it were the burning issue - because of former prime minister John Howard's well-known and long-held respect for the cricketing marvel.

It has been reported Labor believes the question was inserted at Howard's instigation but my inquiries reveal Bradman was included on the list by the department, just as Phar Lap's name would appear in any history of Australian sport.

As one who had the privilege of knowing Sir Donald, and of discussing many aspects of both his career and his views over a number of most genial meetings in South Australia, I am sure he would be amused at the frenzy which grips those who chose to set our cultural boundaries to their politically correct guidelines whenever the Bradman legend surfaces as a cultural marker.

But I suspect he would feel more strongly about the need for prospective citizens to be in accord with what are loosely termed Australian values, or more broadly, Western values.

Labor Immigration Minister Chris Evans has confirmed the Bradman question is not actually in the test. It has appeared only in online examples of possible questions and in a booklet on which test questions are based.

Respect for Bradman is not a matter of politics either, despite some in Labor ranks determination to link the cricketer to Howard. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was quick to deny any plan to axe Bradman.

Evans has commissioned a review of the questions in the citizenship test following the release of results which show there was a a failure rate of 18 per cent (638 out 9043) among people who sat the test in the first three months since its introduction last September.

But what value is there in a test that every person will pass - and those who fail this test are permitted to sit it as many times as they wish. It's a Clayton's compromise.

Evans told the ABC he thought it was probably a bit confronting because "a lot of these people have never had any formal education" and "women particularly in some of these countries are not allowed to attend formal education".

He questioned the fairness of asking people to sit a test in English "when they have very low or no literacy skills and then to ask them about Don Bradman and his cricket record for Australia, magnificent as it was".

While familiarisation with sports culture is to be encouraged, the English language should be given great weight.

Cultural issues, too, should be explained as clearly as possible. While the sometime Mufti of Australia may tell his followers that Australian women are like meat to men, all prospective citizens should be left in no doubt that women have rights under Australian law that take precedence over any religious or traditional laws.

That should also be made clear to Australian Aboriginals, as there has been a disappointing tendency for the legal profession to act as if there were separate laws for Australians of different backgrounds.

Major problems with members of migrant populations have emerged in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Sweden and elsewhere when host nations have pandered to the sensitivities of new citizens and downgraded their own cultural heritage to accommodate the flawed concept of multiculturalism.

Various state human rights bodies have already attempted to downplay Australia's legal traditions to placate minority groups determined to place their religious beliefs ahead of our secular tradition of the separation of church and state.

Citizenship is not a right, it is conditional on accepting our laws and culture. If an understanding of Don Bradman's role in our sporting tradition is part of the test, it is a small price to pay for what is on offer.