Govt moots tougher line on citizenship
14:27 AEST Sat Aug 27 2005
AAP
The government has foreshadowed a tougher line on citizenship with permanent residents facing more stringent background checks in a new anti-terror crackdown.
Citizenship Minister John Cobb said everything was on the table as the government reviewed measures aimed at countering possible terrorist attack inside Australia.
The Australian newspaper reported the government was considering introducing international checks on permanent residents, including a review of countries visited, when they seek citizenship.
It said no formal decision had been made but an announcement was expected within weeks.
Mr Cobb confirmed the government was considering tougher background checks plus a two years extension on the current minimum two years before permanent residents can obtain citizenship.
He said the attorney-general was reviewing all Australian security measures and citizenship was part of that.
"Everything is on that table that may be able to tighten our security in an acceptable way," he told Sky News.
"If we need perhaps to look at a longer term of permanent residence before getting citizenship and perhaps more checks before people are actually allowed to go down that route, well so be it."
Mr Cobb said the government was not looking at depriving anyone of any particular rights.
"We already do conduct checks before anybody is allowed to migrate to Australia in the first place," he said.
"Now the issue more that is being looked at here is that once you are here, you spend your two years. Perhaps we could look at making that four years. You might do another check before that citizenship is actually granted."
However, the Council for Civil Liberties warned that the latest proposals could turn the clock back to the days of white Australia when undesired immigrants faced tests in languages they didn't speak.
"In the same way this sort of policy could be used to discriminate unfairly against people who the government just don't like because they happen to have visited somewhere or taken some other actions which is innocent and explainable but doesn't fit the government's policy," the council's president Cameron Murphy told Sky News.
"If the government is proposing to remove some of our basic human rights and civil liberties in the interests of security, then the burden should be on the government to demonstrate that by doing so it is actually going to provide a tangible security benefit."
Labor citizenship spokesman Annette Hurley said the opposition would consider the government measures but it should have made better use of existing powers to check migrants.
"The police and the security services already have extensive powers and if they were using those I don't think we would need them," she said. "Those power already exist and the government should make use of them."
©AAP 2005
