3432 ACC Report f/a 1 - Australian Citizenship

On balance, the Council rejected any increase
in the English language requirement on the
basis that everyone who has the will to be
involved in the community should have the
opportunity to do so — even with a basic level
of English. Council members considered that it
is the desire to be ‘Australian’ that underlies
Australian Citizenship and that, while English
is one indication of how one can be Australian,
it is not the only one.
The Council recommends that the existing
‘basic’ English language requirement for grant
of Australian Citizenship in the Australian
Citizenship Act 1948 be retained as well as the
current arrangements for testing this
requirement at interview.
As mentioned in chapter 3 under Citizenship
course element for the AMEP, the Minister
for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, the
Hon. Philip Ruddock MP, referred the matter of
whether completion of a certain number of
hours of English tuition or meeting a certain
standard in the Adult Migrant Education
Program (AMEP) by Citizenship applicants
would enable them to meet the English
language requirement for grant of Australian
Citizenship without further testing.
The Council noted that non-English speaking
migrants and refugees are entitled to receive
up to 510 hours of English language training
(in most cases free of charge) provided by the
AMEP. It also understands that completion of
300 hours of English tuition or the Certificate
in Spoken and Written English II (CSWE II)
could be expected to result in English language
competency levels that meet the ‘basic’ English
language requirement for grant of Australian
Citizenship and that some 50 per cent of
AMEP students have completed 300 hours of
English tuition, or CSWE II, by the time they
leave the program.
Accordingly, the Council recommends that
completion of either 300 hours of AMEP
English language tuition or the Certificate in
Spoken and Written English II (CSWE II) be
accepted for the purpose of satisfying the
English language requirement for the grant
of Australian Citizenship.
All prospective applicants for Citizenship
would of course still have the option of
satisfying the English language requirement
orally during the Citizenship interview.
Acknowledging that English language skills
are advantageous in relation to civic
participation, the Council recommends that
new migrants without functional English be
actively encouraged to avail themselves of
their opportunities under the Adult Migrant
English Program in order to increase their
opportunity to participate fully in the
Australian community.
Knowledge of the responsibilities and
privileges of Australian Citizenship
Applicants for Australian Citizenship, under
the age of 60 years, are required to
demonstrate at interview that they have an
‘adequate’ knowledge of the responsibilities
and privileges of Australian Citizenship. This is
tested at interview by asking an applicant to
explain in basic English their understanding of
the responsibilities and privileges of Australian
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