Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to update this place on the public conversation regarding citizenship that is underway in my electorate of Tangney. This has originated organically over many months. My constituents welcome the opportunity to make a submission to the formal citizenship review process. Indeed, I encourage all of those interested in the issue of what it is to be a citizen in terms of rights and responsibilities to make a submission. Submissions can be made until the end of this month and further information on the process is available at www.citizenship.gov.au or at my electorate office.

Tangney is an electorate with a rapidly changing face. The common bond of citizenship must not and cannot be diminished. The Abbott government will strengthen the ties that bind us. In Tangney, there are 16,400 businesses and each knows the value of a contract. In a crude way, citizenship is the highest contract between the state and the individual. Fidelity, honour, respect, rights and responsibilities: these cannot be but words; they are clauses in the contract. Violating any of these does invalidate the contract. That is the clear message my constituents have relayed to me over the last six weeks. This feedback has been given through community forums, community surveys and my website. Some 1,200 people per week still come to Western Australia to make it home, and many, when they find themselves in Tangney, avail themselves of some of the state's best public schools. Those who feel most offended by those who defile the idea of Australian citizenship are those who have worked, wanted, wished and waited for citizenship—our new Australians.

The current citizenship test is an insult to the true value of citizenship. Having only 20 multiple-choice questions does a great disservice not only to the value of citizenship and its place but also to the new immigrants looking to integrate. The key to integrating in a melting-pot society is melting. The only way to melt is to know English, to know where we have come from and to have the same desires and values—all of this—because by knowing the road travelled yesterday we can forge a new and better road together for tomorrow.