Doubts harden on Peter Dutton’s citizenship test

Peter Dutton has defended citizenship changes, using a sample English test that asks about clean coal and bees.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, left, and Malcolm Turnbull in question time on Wednesday. Picture: Kym Smith

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has defended the government’s citizenship changes, using a sample English test that quizzes aspiring citizens about clean coal, carbon emissions, automated newspaper production, cinema history and “bee behaviour”.

Senate crossbencher Nick Xenophon, who controls three upper house seats, yesterday told The Australian all parliamentarians should take the test to see if they could score in the “band 6” category — the requirement under the government’s proposed citizenship shake-up.

Mr Dutton said the reform was critical to national security, noting that Middle East foreign fighters were only allowed to return because they were citizens.

“They have rights and protections under Australian laws,” he said. “Once somebody becomes an Australian citizen it is very difficult — even if they have been involved in terrorist activities — to see them either renounce their citizenship or for them to be stripped of their citizenship.”

But in a further sign the government could be forced to compromise on the package, Nick Xenophon Team senator Stirling Griff said “we do have real concerns over how high that English test hurdle is set”.

“We think all MPs should be made to do this test, and that all sitting MPs should also consider whether their parents and grandparents would have been able to pass the test,” he said.

Mr Dutton yesterday denied Labor claims the citizenship overhaul required university-level ­English and encouraged people to look up sample questions on the website of the International ­English Language Testing System (IELTS).

He said potential citizens would be required to return a band 6 score in the General Training stream of the IELTS, which was less challenging than the tests required in the “Academic” stream.

But Senator Griff was not satisfied with Mr Dutton’s assurance. “Many of us would know of ­migrants who have been amazing contributors to our community and who have functional English but whose writing, grammar or spelling means they would never be able to achieve a IELTS band 6 result.”

Questions in the IELTS General Training test seen by The Australian would require citizenship applicants to examine complex extracts dealing with diverse topics such as carbon emissions, chlorofluorocarbons, bee behaviour, the history of cinema and automation in newspaper production.

To reach band 6, an individual completing the reading task in the General Training stream must ­answer 30 out of 40 questions correctly including multiple choice, sentence completion and short-answer questions.

Mr Dutton last night played down the NXT push for MPs to take the test.

“Members of parliament need to be Australian citizens before they can be elected,” he told The Australian. “So if people aren’t born in Australia they need to pass the test before becoming a member of parliament.”

Government sources also told The Australian that, to obtain a range of skilled visas, applicants needed to return a band 6 score in the tougher English proficiency test in the Academic stream.

The Immigration Minister dismissed Labor’s objections to the citizenship reforms as a “red herring” to cover internal divisions. “The reality is the Labor Party has tried to sell people a pup here,” Mr Dutton said. “There is division in the Labor Party in relation to what is a very important issue.”