Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to bring to the attention of the chamber the problem being faced by permanent residents of my electorate of Forrest when they attempt to become Australian citizens and are required to sit the citizenship test. The government needs to ensure that adequate numbers of professionally trained people and adequate computer infrastructure are available to assist applicants with the citizenship test process to become Australian citizens.

Many permanent residents in my electorate who were born in the United Kingdom are included in the national total of some 170,000 UK permanent residents in Australia eligible to become Australian citizens. One of my Forrest constituents, Mrs Maria Radosavljevac, came to Australia when she was eight years old on her mother’s passport. She married an Australian-born resident, raised three children and decided to treat the children to an overseas holiday at the end of the year. Thankfully, they have planned well in advance, because there is a five-month queue to sit the Australian citizenship test and then a further six months are needed to complete the rest of the process.

We need additional resources. There is only one office for sitting the test in the regional area of Bunbury, and they fail to tell you there is only one computer to service the entire south-west region and also that Immigration personnel must oversee the test. We need to encourage Australian permanent residents from the United Kingdom to become Australian citizens, and the government must allocate sufficient resources and facilities. (Time expired)