The workshop would consist of a variety of speakers, from different backgrounds and points of view (eg a farmer, an Aboriginal elder, someone from Rotary, a schoolteacher, … like that) explaining what Australian citizenship meant to them. Importantly, whenever the speakers disagreed on a point, they would acknowledge each other’s different opinions with respect and move on. Prospective citizens would be required only to attend and to show some interest and respect, nothing else.

Anyway, that was my suggestion. Didn’t come to anything.

I don’t celebrate Australia Day for reasons that must be quite obvious. I wear my favourite T-shirt which was the protest one against Jabiluka Uranium mine, and I try to do something positive to let people know why I’m wearing it. I feel a great sense of shame on that day, in fact on every day. This is just disgusting and hurtful to put these lies on such a test! One of the questions is a multiple choice question on the colours on the aboriginal flag. A better one would be what those colours represent! I’d get rid of the damned questionaire. Apart from anything else it’s infantile!

From the “Old Customs House” web-site:

“The Dictation Test
From 1901 customs officers were given the power to exclude all non-Europeans. This became the cornerstone of the so-called White Australia Policy.

In the face of considerable international criticism, officials looked for a way to exclude people without making it seem due to race. The answer was the notorious Dictation Test. Immigrants could be required to pass a language test in any European language. If they failed, they were refused entry.

Maltese applicants were given a test in Dutch. A political activist who spoke several European languages eventually failed when he was tested in Gaelic.

This technique continued to be used by Customs until the early 1960s”.

A similar technique is currently being used in remote Aboriginal Australia. School children are being tested in English (NAPLAN testing) and their failure to reach certain standards is then used as an excuse to destroy bi-lingual programmes.

The current citizenship test is a breeze. Give us another half a century and we will be a truly enlightened Nation.

Australians are proud of the fact that their nation did not emerge through revolution or bloodshed, but by negotiation and referendum.

Bloody hell!!! I’m gobsmacked.
That would be brilliant “Pythonesque” humour, if it wasn’t so blatantly and tragically false.
Clearly, some people’s blood just doesn’t count.
The white blindfold view of history I guess.

Mateship? Make ‘em watch “Wake in Fright” before sitting the test…