Labor loses it over language tests for new citizens

And Gillian Triggs exits stage far left. Will the new human rights chief be any better?

Labor won’t back the government’s citizenship overhaul. The Australianonline, yesterday:

Labor has resolved to oppose Peter Dutton’s citizenship changes and refer the bill to a Senate inquiry, warning it has the potential to alienate some members of society.

And Labor’s Tony Burke blames it all on a proposed English language test. Canberra, yesterday:

What sort of snobbery needs a government to say, “Unless you reach university level of English, we’d rather you weren’t here?”

“Snobbery”? Henry Higgins was right all along … My Fair Lady, March 15, 1956:

Use proper English you’re regarded as a freak.

Speaking very good English helps if you move Down Under … just a wee bit … Australian Bureau of Statistics website, June 26, 2012:

In 2011, 81 per cent of Australians aged five years and over spoke only English at home while 2 per cent didn’t speak English at all.

Is Bill Shorten a snob? The Labor leader speaking in Sydney, April 21:

Now, if there is a discussion about making sure that prospective citizens have got a reasonable grasp of ­English, well, that’s fair enough.

How about Chris Bowen? The opposition Treasury spokesman on the ABC’s AM program, April 21:

In principle, obviously we support ­English language testing. We consistently have.

Peter Dutton is none too pleased. The Immigration Minister in Canberra, yesterday:

Mr Shorten should … stand up to the left of his party …

And Labor won’t meet him halfway. Burke speaking in Canberra, yesterday:

Journalist: If the government comes back and says, “We’ll whittle that back down to two years and we won’t ­require university level English”, will that be good enough?

Burke: We will oppose … we will not offer them an olive branch due to the way they’ve behaved.

Penny Wong made one good point about any English test. Labor’s ­foreign affairs spokeswoman on ABC’s RN Breakfast, April 21:

If English grammar is the test, there might be a few members of parliament that might struggle.

It’s the dawn of a new era over at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Chris Kenny reports for The Australian ­online, yesterday:

Australian Law Reform Commission president Rosalind Croucher will today be appointed as the new president of the Australian Human Rights Commission to replace Gillian Triggs.

We won’t miss Croucher’s predecessor. Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian, today:

Triggs represents the three Ds: the left’s disdain for large swathes of ­ordinary people, their delusional claims to righteousness, and the inevitable disunity that arises from the clash of values.

Will Fairfax apologise for not checking Triggs’s recent claims about Kenny? Kenny’s letter to The Sydney Morning Herald, yesterday:

Michael Gordon reported comments from AHRC president Gillian Triggs that criticised my reporting … The comments conveyed the impression I had not tried to speak with Professor Triggs … If Gordon had simply checked this allegation with me I would have been able to furnish him with emails and other communications refuting it.