Despite these objections, parliament passed the Nationality and Citizenship Act and it became law on Australia Day, 26 January The Act created Australian citizenship and the rules for gaining it. All residents born in Australia automatically became citizens.
They also kept their status as British subjects. Under the Act, it was also easy for British subjects from other parts of the Empire to become Australian citizens. But it was much more difficult for migrants from outside the British Commonwealth to do so. They will no longer need to strive towards an intangible goal, but can aspire to the honour of Australian citizenship We shall try to teach the children that they are fortunate to be British, and even more fortunate to be Australian.
The main benefit of becoming a citizen was the right to vote in elections. Letter sent to Mr Zagora in Since it became law in , the Nationality and Citizenship Act has been amended more than 30 times.
In it was renamed the Australian Citizenship Act. Over time, amendments removed discrimination against non-British migrants. In the Act was amended so that Australian citizens would no longer be considered British subjects. In the Australian Citizenship Act was amended again. Can you find out what new measures were brought in as part of that amendment? Theme Australia as a nation Politics Indigenous Australia. Further activities. In —74, settlers arrived. The amendments did not receive bipartisan support however, with the former minister of immigration, A.
Forbes declaring:. What is wrong with discrimination when there are valid overwhelming reasons to discriminate? People from Britain historically have been treated differently because they integrate more quickly into the Australian community than any other national group.
There were a number of developments under the Whitlam Government aimed at assisting in the settling and integration of migrants such as the establishment of the Settlement Services Branch of the Department of Immigration in and the Telephone Interpreter Service in There was a significant jump in the number of people becoming citizens in this period with a record grants of naturalisation in — However, immigration numbers declined dramatically with an intake of 52 in —76, the lowest since the Second World War.
Net overseas migration in was only 13 The source countries of settler arrivals in the s altered markedly from the previous decade with the largest proportion coming from the United Kingdom and Ireland although the number declined to around a third of all arrivals followed by Yugoslavia, New Zealand, Lebanon and Greece.
The Fraser Coalition Government sought to increase the number of immigrants and set the target at 70 in In the same year, the first small boats carrying refugees from Vietnam began arriving on Australian shores. The Australian Population and Immigration Council released a Green Paper in outlining three different levels of immigration as options for Australia.
A policy focus on developing migrant entry criteria on the basis of benefit to the Australian community and on integration into Australian society saw the introduction of the first number -based migrant selection system, the Numerical Multi-Factor Assessment Scheme NUMAS in Following the recommendations of the Galbally review of services and programs for new migrants, the Government cut funding to the Good Neigbour Movement leaving the task of assisting new migrants to the Department of Immigration and local community groups.
There was an increasing focus on immigrants with particular skills or those who aimed to establish businesses. The Regularisation of Status Program in encouraged those without permanent-resident status to apply for it and enabled those who had previously been refused to re-apply.
The new Labor Government in retained the main immigration policies of the previous Government in regards to regular review of the target intake and a non-discriminatory approach.
Citing economic difficulties, the new Government maintained the target migrant intake at around 80—90 Settler arrivals in —83 totalled 93 However, due to a significant number of departures, net overseas migration reached the lowest level of the s at 54 in The Australian Citizenship Amendment Act was aimed at removing discriminatory aspects of the Act in relation to sex, marital status and nationality.
Of particular importance, the definition of the status of British subject was repealed in order for the Act to reflect the national identity of all Australians. The following year saw a rise in the number of new citizens with grants of naturalisation in —86, an increase of 20 on the —85 period. There was heated debate over the number of immigrants from Asian countries in both the media and in Parliament. The s saw a dramatic decline in the number of those arriving from the United Kingdom, falling to 20 per cent of settler arrivals, whilst Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia became the first Asian nations to be included in the list of the top five source countries for settler arrivals.
Amid calls to increase the percentage of immigrants from European countries the Prime Minister Bob Hawke made a defence of the immigration policy of the time:. I do not believe that one can honestly say that there is an immutably right figure for any migrant group within the overall intake. Rather the approach of the Labor Government reflects the application of economic criteria in determining the total intake and of economic and humanitarian factors in breaking down this total among different categories of migrants.
This Government does not consider that a balance or mix in our migration program determined on racial grounds can have any place in our society. A major economic study released in , The Economic Effects of Immigration on Australia , highlighted many of the positive effects of immigration on the Australian economy.
There were also concerns with the ageing of the population as well as with low fertility rates. Amendments to the Australian Citizenship Act in meant that not all children born in Australia would automatically have citizenship conferred upon them.
The requirement for new citizens to renounce other allegiances was also deleted. This renunciation was never legally enforceable and, as some countries do not allow their citizens to divest themselves of their citizenship through renunciation, some migrants could become dual-Australian citizens. Removing the renunciation requirement formalised the toleration of migrants in this situation but still did not allow Australians migrating overseas to become dual citizens.
The latter part of the decade saw a large increase in the migrant intake, seen as essential for economic development. One change saw some migrants granted three-year resident return visas which were intended to allow those with businesses to gradually transfer their operations to Australia. In , a committee headed by Dr Stephen FitzGerald released an influential report Immigration: A Commitment to Australia which found that there were major problems with migrant selection mechanisms, widespread community mistrust of the immigration program and that citizenship was undervalued.
The report examined key issues relating to immigration in Australia, particularly public perceptions of the program, non-European migration and the notion of multiculturalism. It made recommendations regarding the size and scale of the program but also on how best to educate the Australian public on the aims and benefits of immigration.
The issue of multiculturalism was approached as a problem:. Perhaps part of the problem is the word itself. Perhaps too much is expected of the concept. It appears it cannot accommodate the many definitions which are forced upon it by exponents and opponents… Just as Australia is a democracy but it has its own identity, so also is it multicultural, but nonetheless identifiably Australian.
It is the Australian identity that matters most in Australia. And if the Government will affirm that strongly, multiculturalism might seem less divisive or threatening. The debate over the merits of multiculturalism and its usefulness as a concept in guiding immigration and settlement policy was to continue over the following two decades. The year was declared the Year of Citizenship by the then Prime Minister and a letter was sent to every household in the country encouraging those eligible, to apply for citizenship.
An advertising campaign was launched as well as a telephone hotline. The publicity saw people granted citizenship in —90, the most in any year in the twentieth century. This Act established a statutory entitlement to a particular visa or permit based on the satisfaction of selection criteria. It also provided for a statutory two-tier merits review system of migration decisions. The points selection system was introduced for a number of migration categories under new regulations which gave greater weight to different criteria.
The early s saw the onset of recession and a reduction in migration targets from the high rates of previous years. The number of occupations which were considered to be on the priority list was reduced from eleven to four. The target in —93 was reduced to 80 , down from in the previous year. There were increasing concerns over the number of boats carrying asylum seekers arriving on the shores of Australia. Net overseas migration fell to 34 in , one of the lowest figures since the Second World War.
The Migration Reform Act passed in codified the immigration program into law through the introduction of a universal visa system. It also expanded the review process relating to migration decisions. The idea of Australian citizenship came under renewed scrutiny following the publication of the report, Australians All — Enhancing Australia Citizenship , in This report, from the Joint Standing Committee on Migration, recommended the widespread promotion of citizenship coordinated by the Commonwealth:.
Such promotion should serve the dual purpose of encouraging non-citizens to become Australian citizens and increasing awareness among all Australians about the meaning and value of Australian citizenship. In response to this report, then Minister for Immigration, Senator Nick Bolkus, outlined plans to rewrite the Australian Citizenship Act to make it clearer and more relevant as well to increase the promotional activities encouraging migrants to become citizens.
This period saw a greater focus on business migration with an increase from places to and other initiatives to raise the number of those migrating for business.
During the period from —, the number of settlers from the United Kingdom fell to There was an equivalent number arriving from Asian countries with those from Hong Kong and China together making up The election of the Coalition Government in saw overall migration numbers remain at similar levels to previous years but an increase in the percentage of skilled migrants from 29 per cent in —96 to 38 per cent in — Family reunion declined as a percentage of the immigration program from close to 69 per cent in —96 down to approximately 47 per cent in — Temporary work movements into Australia have grown rapidly since the s.
The increase in temporary migrants coming to Australia is part of a significant shift in migration policy as these migrants are not points-tested in the same way as other skilled migrants, there are no numerical limits and a considerable number have sought to remain in the country as permanent residents. The Coalition Government also made a number of immediate changes to migration services following the election.
These included the extension on the six month waiting period for access to welfare benefits, except Medicare, for all non-humanitarian arrivals introduced by the Keating Government to two years as well as the abolition of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research in In , the Australian Citizenship Council, chaired by Sir Ninian Stephen, was established to advise the Government on citizenship matters.
In , the Howard Government introduced a system of temporary protection visas TPVs for those unauthorised arrivals granted asylum in Australia as part of a larger effort to dissuade further boat arrivals.
The visas were granted for periods of up to three years at the end of which holders could apply for permanent protection or were obliged to return home. Net overseas migration declined sharply from 97 in to 72 in but began to rise steadily in the following years. The latter part of the decade also saw a drop in the number of those becoming citizens with only 70 grants of naturalisation in —, down from in — Immigration policy in the early part of the decade was focussed primarily on the issue of unauthorised boat arrivals.
The number of unauthorised arrivals was to decline dramatically in the months following this tragedy and boats carrying asylum seekers arriving on the Australian shore were to become a rarer occurrence. However, the treatment of those placed in mandatory detention came under increased criticism from a number of churches, community groups as well as human rights agencies. In , the Australian Citizenship Council released its report, Australian Citizenship for a New Century which examined both the concept of citizenship and recommended changes to modernise citizenship law.
This had been a contentious aspect of the law for many years and the subject of much lobbying, particularly from the expatriate community. Debate over multiculturalism came to the fore in the middle of the decade, particularly in regard to Muslim Australians and the proposed introduction of a more rigorous citizenship test. A number of senior political figures, including the then Prime Minister, John Howard, repeatedly raised as an issue the failure of small sections of the Islamic community in Australia to integrate and to learn English.
In , the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs released a discussion paper on the merits of introducing a citizenship test, Australian citizenship: much more than a ceremony. It described the merits of a test as encouraging integration, promoting the value of citizenship and ensuring applicants had appropriate English language skills.
The Australian Citizenship Act significantly restructured the Act. It introduced a number of measures relating to national security as well as the extension of the residency requirement to four years including a 12 month period of permanent residence before making the application. The Australian Citizenship Amendment Citizenship Testing Act introduced the new test requirements for citizenship applicants. The test consists of 20 multiple choice questions drawn from a larger pool of questions and based upon information on Australian history, culture and values contained in a resource booklet.
In —07, people were approved to become Australian citizens by grant, descent and resumption—the highest annual number since Australian citizenship was introduced in In , the permanent migration program target was set at , the highest level for 20 years. Net overseas migration for , at was the highest on record. In , people were approved to become Australian citizens by conferral, descent or resumption. Under section 51 xix naturalization and aliens of the Constitution, the Commonwealth enacted the Naturalization Act The Commonwealth was then invested with the exclusive right to issue certificates of naturalisation instead of the colonies as previously.
Persons who were naturalised previously and given State and colonial naturalisations were deemed to be naturalized. The Act introduced the conditions under which aliens could acquire the rights and privileges of British subjects.
A standard was established which a person was required to meet before they could obtain letters of naturalisation. Persons from Asia, Africa or the Pacific Islands were precluded from applying for naturalisation.
The main provisions of the Act were that:. The Department of Immigration saw the take up of Australian citizenship and the success of its migration policies as interlinked, and monitored naturalisation rates. From the government organised Australian citizenship conventions and the Good Neighbour Movement to help promote citizenship and encourage new citizens to assimilate by providing formal language and culture classes, written resources and advice bureaus.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people gained little from the Act. They were not specifically excluded from the legislation and so were, technically, Australian citizens.
However, they were still unable to vote — one of the key privileges of citizenship. Since it was passed, the Nationality and Citizenship Act has been amended more than 30 times as attitudes towards immigration have changed.
It was renamed the Australian Citizenship Act in From federal governments have gradually removed the favoured status accorded to British subjects and extended Australian citizenship to people on a non-discriminatory basis. In the law was altered so that Australian citizens would no longer be considered British subjects, and British citizens arriving in Australia would no longer be able to vote in elections until they had become Australian citizens.
Changes to the legislation in introduced a citizenship test and increased the residence requirement from two to four years. These changes represented a departure from, and possibly an end to, the trend of making citizenship easier to acquire. Australian citizenship, Department of Home Affairs. The National Museum of Australia acknowledges First Australians and recognises their continuous connection to country, community and culture.
Defining Moments Citizenship Act. See our classroom resource. Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell, Citizenship before Until there was no such thing as an Australian citizen.
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