Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to speak for a few minutes this evening and continue tomorrow in relation to the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Citizenship Test Review and Other Measures) Bill 2009, which is important in terms of the amendment to the Australian citizenship legislation.

I listened to the member for Cowan. I just want to tell him that we take very seriously the responsibilities of the defence of Australia and border protection. We take responsibility for the fact that we have constitutional obligations under section 51 of the Australian Constitution. We were elected on a platform of an alliance with the Americans, our engagement with Asia and our partnership with the United Nations. We have taken those obligations seriously in every term of a Labor government since Labor has ever been elected to power in this country. To claim that we would somehow open the floodgates to our borders and allow people to come to this country in some way is nothing short of disgraceful. It is not the Labor Party’s policy. It has never been the Labor Party’s policy. We are, by this legislation, improving the integrity and the fairness of the citizenship criteria and testing for those wonderful people who come to this country and want to make a contribution.

I say to the member for Cowan that the most common way that a person will come to this country and be illegal is by overstaying their visa—often dressed like any one of us here in this chamber. For him to use this legislation as a vicious attack on the Labor Party’s integrity, our defence of the realm and border protection is appalling. We take our responsibilities extremely seriously in this regard. The Australian Labor Party has been committed to ensuring there are no unnecessary barriers or extensive delays to the acquisition of citizenship. I was a delegate to the national conference of the ALP, this time and last time. We passed resolutions to include in our national platform the intention to support an inclusive citizenship process for new migrants.

I say to the member for Cowan and to all those people listening that we are determined to do this, because we think this is equitable and because we think this is fair in the circumstances. We want to make sure that those people who have come to this country—the six million people who have come to this country since World War I and who play such an important role in the life and community of this country—can get citizenship. I am very glad that four million of them have actually attained citizenship since World War II.

Debate interrupted.

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