Janet's Test of Aussiness

Guess what! Janet Albretchsen thinks a test of “Australian values” is a good idea…

MAYBE, just maybe, the long, slow surrender is over. Instead of raising hewhite flag through silence, more political leaders are realising that not enough is being done to defend Western values. Last week, it was Andrew Robb's turn.

At the Sydney Institute, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs suggested that immigrants to Australia should pass a new citizenship test. From the reaction in some quarters, you'd think he wanted immigrants to recite verbatim, in a plum Tory accent, Robert Menzies' speech on Freedom in a Modern Society. Or recount word-perfect the first three chapters of Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom.

No, Robb had something less exacting on his mind. He flagged the need for immigrants to have a more functional level of English and an understanding of Australian values.

OK , tell me this. What form should this “citizenship test” take? An essay question? Multiple choice? What score does an applicant need in order to prove they’ve got what it takes? Can an applicant appeal their results? Can an applicant re-sit the exam? What’s to stop some naughty immigrant from sitting the test and then telling his naughty immigrant-to-be mates overseas what was on the test so that they can read up on those topics? These are important questions, and you can guarantee all those cheering on the comments of Andrew Robb probably don’t have the answers.

Immediately, Robb's proposal was subjected to the standard leftist values guessing game. Speaking for the Sikh community, Bawa Singh Jagdev told the ABC's AM program: "I don't understand very much what do they mean by Australian values." Federation of Islamic Councils president and long-time Australian citizen Ameer Ali said he had no problem with universal values, "but when you say Australian values, no one knows what those values are".

It was a predictable response and neatly proved Robb's point: that Australian values are not proclaimed enough to new immigrants.

Interesting theory. Bawa Singh Jagdev and Ameer Ali don’t know what Australian values are because Australian values haven’t been “proclaimed enough” to them. Janet knows that Bawah Singh Jadev and Ameer Ali are indicating that there is not some sort of official “approved values list” lying around somewhere carved into a stone tablet ten commandments style, but of course that doesn't fit her thesis.

Robb defined Australian values as including core Western values such as "our respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual, our commitment to the rule of law, our commitment to the equality of men and women", then added some particularly Australian attributes such as "the spirit of the fair go, of tolerance and compassion to those in need".

OK, so if these are the values we're talking about, and an immigrant can recite these in a test situation, how does this guarantee that they’ll be a good citizen? Anyone can rattle off these sorts of ideas while actually holding conflicting beliefs.

Immigration Official: “OK sir, before we grant you citizenship, can you tell me what a few Australian values are?”

Hateful Chauvinistic Racist Xenophobe: “Oh you know – spirit of the fair go, tolerance, commitment to the rule of law. All that sort of stuff really”.

Immigration Official: “Correct! You’re in! Here’s your certificate."

Hateful Chauvinistic Racist Xenophobe: “Thanks!” (Chuckles evily).

I also find it amusing that Janet “Hooray for locking up asylum seekers for years on end” Albretchsen seems to agree with the “tolerance and compassion to those in need” value mentioned by Andrew Robb. Clearly, naming a value and acting in accordance with it are two entirely different things.

The rest of the article pretty much goes onto the standard whinging about Marxism in schools and Universities – pretty much an exercise in Donnellyist rhetoric.

In a nutshell, those making calls for an “Australian Values Test” are just singing from the right-wing nationalist hymn sheet. It’s the same people who think it should be compulsory for Australian flags to be flying above every Australian school and that flag burning should be a criminal offence. Who knows, perhaps they’ll take a leaf out of the books of Peter King and Jim Ryun, two Republican (gasp!) congressmen seeking to ensure that the recitation and singing of the Pledge of Allegiance, National Anthem and new citizens' oaths is in English only.