Citizenship Test in Australia
The Government of Australia greatly supports the citizenship test for migrants wishing to become citizens of the country through naturalization. The citizenship test that Australia offers not only includes an English language proficiency test but also provides questions regarding the history and culture of Australia.
Some feared that a set of citizenship quiz using the English language will be deemed as discrimination against non-English speakers. However, the majority of Australians still thought that an English language citizenship test would be most important. In a recent survey conducted by Newspoll exclusively for the Australian Citizenship test, around 77 percent of the respondents have agreed to include an English proficiency exam as well as questions about the history and culture of the country. Of the 77 percent, 53 percent expressed the idea strongly while only 19 percent did not agree with adding those questions in the citizenship test.
The survey conducted by Newspoll only shows clearly how the majority supports a detailed citizenship test in each of the demographic group used in the survey with strongest support from the Coalition supporters and old voters. According to the statistics, 9 out of 10 Coalition supporters agreed to the idea while only 7 percent were against the additional questions for the citizenship test. The lowest level of support came from the participants aged 18 to 34 years old.
The proposed Australian citizenship test has caused a lot of controversy taking into consideration the issue about Australian values being incorporated in the test. Both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader have shown full support of a citizenship test that involves a quiz on Australian values.