The "citizenship test"

has some new questions.

For those of you who don't know the twenty question multiple choice test is something aspiring Downunderites need to pass before they are considered eligible to become citizens. You need to score 75% to pass. 

The old questions are more concerned with history and the form of government. They include one about ANZAC day and another about the Constitution. 

The new questions are supposed to be about "values" and "social cohesion".  Aspiring applicants "must affirm an updated values statement". 

The new questions include things such as why it is important to vote and whether people should make an effort to learn English. There are also questions about whether you can encourage violence if you have been insulted and whether you should tolerate those who disagree with you. The last example given by the article I have just read refers to whether you can choose a marriage partner.

It all sounds very reasonable - and it won't make any difference. It will be a simple matter to give the "right" answers without actually agreeing. People will continue to hold their own views. 

I know new citizens who will vote as they are told they "must" vote, who will go on believing they  have no choice. It is the way things were done "back home". 

We have a neighbour who has been here many years. She still speaks almost no English. I offered to help her but her husband refused. It allows him to maintain control over her. 

I know people who, while not encouraging violence, do not tolerate those who disagree with them. It is most unlikely they will ever do so. They believe they are right. If they could change the way we are governed they would do so, indeed they will work to do so because they believe it is the right thing to do.

And I know young people who will marry the partners chosen for them by their families. They may "know" the law does not condone this but they also know they do not have a choice if they want to remain within the family. 

I wonder just who dreams up things like the citizenship test and what they believe they are achieving by it? If we taught "citizenship" in schools as a separate subject there would be objections that it did not  fit in with "multi-culturalism". 

So, just what are we trying to do here? Isn't true citizenship worth something more than the "right" answers to fifteen out of twenty questions?