FECCA welcomes abandonment of plans to make citizenship test stricter

17 June 2019

The Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) today welcomed the decision by the Coalition Government not to pursue plans to make testing stricter for people seeking Australian citizenship.

The Morrison Government had previously planned to make testing tougher and include an English test and questions on Australian values.

FECCA Chairperson Mary Patetsos said stricter language testing was not necessary.

"FECCA welcomes this decision because while there are many valid requirements around citizenship testing, stricter language testing is not necessary or required.

"An overwhelming majority of migrants seeking Australian citizenship already have high level English language skills, and those skills develop rapidly in-country. 

"Migrants understand the importance of language acquisition and work hard to learn English so they can fully engage with and contribute to society.

"What is important is ensuring equitable access to affordable and quality English language learning and other support services for migrants, for example child care for parents as required. We should encourage and incentivise not punish or deter.”

FECCA is the peak, national body representing Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. FECCA’s role is to advocate and promote issues on behalf of its constituency to government, business and the broader community.