Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the greater electorate of Isaacs, 5,551 residents do not speak English well or at all, according to the data from the 2016 census. Many of these residents are Australian citizens making ongoing contributions to our community. Residents with limited English are everywhere. They might sell you vegetables at the local shop. They might manufacture the metal sheeting that you use to build a garage. Until recently, they might have been in the assembly line, building cars in one of the great manufacturing hubs of Melbourne. Or they might work in migrant services, helping others to settle in Australia and build a life in this country of opportunity.

This government does not want these members of our community to be Australian citizens. It wants to introduce a university-level English language test for people to be accepted as Australian citizens. For Australia's entire history post white settlement, we have welcomed migrants with no or poor levels of English. Great diasporas of people fled Europe for Australia after World War II. In the 1960s and 1970s, more fled Vietnam, Cambodia and other places of conflict, and started the thriving and successful and vibrant communities that south-east Melbourne is known for. More recently, great communities of people from India and China, to name just two places, have sought the work and educational opportunities of Australia and in my electorate of Isaacs. I say to these new communities of Australians: welcome. Australia is a country of opportunity. We offer and have always offered a place for people to learn and contribute back to the great multicultural fabric that makes this country. Entire communities in Australia were born from people with poor or no English, and these communities are now thriving, vibrant parts of Australian society.

The Australian citizenship test is already in English, and conversation-level English has served our country for many years. I ask members of the government benches to think of the great Australians who would have missed out on contributing to our country if they were subject to a university-level English language test when they became citizens.

Late in July, I was joined by my parliamentary colleagues Clare O'Neil and Julian Hill at a community forum in Springvale about the government's proposed changes. Around 400 locals turned up to share their concerns about the government's proposals, and I thank everyone who spoke out in opposition to these proposed changes: Greater Dandenong mayor Jim Memeti; former Manningham mayor Jennifer Yang; Thong Nguyen of Vietnamese Community in Australia, Dr Dalal Smiley of Wellsprings for Women in Dandenong; former people's ambassador Chap Chow; councillors Youhorn Chea and Meng Tak of Greater Dandenong Council; and the Cambodian Association of Australia. These proposed changes are wrong.