Welcome To All Who Pass The Test

Certainly the citizenship test, which was flagged last Sunday by the Immigration and Citizenship Minister, Kevin Andrews, is symbolic. But symbolism is important in democratic politics - especially when attempts are being made to unite all groups in a pluralistic, immigrant society like Australia.

Will The Citizenship Test Really Help New Arrivals Fit In?

Australia can be baffling, even if you've been here for half your life.

Editorial A Fighting Chance

THE Federal Government is a step closer to setting a new citizenship test, which it says will try to strike the right balance between diversity and integration.

I Pledge Allegiance To ... The Don

ALTHOUGH many Australians might struggle to grasp their significance to everyday life, the program of the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony, the emergence of the Heidelberg School of impressionist art and the uses of the stump-jump plough have emerged as potential questions on the Federal Government's citizenship test.

Time To Remember The Tampa Debacle

I WANT to take you back six years. To Saturday, August 25, 2001. Back when Australia was still shaping as a model of international citizenship. Back when we thought the rise of Pauline Hanson's One Nation in the late 1990s was just a racist hiccup that had been usurped by the thousands of people who marched across bridges for reconciliation and Cathy Freeman's triumph at the Sydney Olympics.

Und Guten Morgen, Herr Shane Varner

"SHANE Warne, German." Few thought the day would come where we would be able to utter these words, but finally, with the announcement that Warne may take German citizenship (via his German-born mother) to free up places for other foreigners at his English county club, it may be here. If Warne does become a German citizen, however, he may have to renounce his Australian citizenship.

Rebel Mp Loses Citizenship Debate

THE Liberal MP Petro Georgiou recalled the language difficulties of his own migrant father in an impassioned rejection of the Government's tougher citizenship test.

Great Australians We Might Have Missed Out On ...

FORTUNATELY, for the film-maker and former English teacher Khoa Do, his parents made it to the lucky country before they had a chance to fail the Federal Government's new immigration procedures. The rules could potentially have precluded vast segments of the population from immigrating, including prominent Australians such as the boxer Kostya Tszyu, the businessman Frank Lowy, the scientist Professor Sir Gustav Nossal - and Mr Andrews's assistant minister for immigration and citizenship, Teresa Gambaro.