The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) has called for the recently-introduced Australian Citizenship Test to be removed as a means of judging potential migrants’ suitability for Australian immigration. Instead, they would like to see a series of what they call “compulsory formation settings”, where Australian attitudes and valued can be promoted.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans has already promised a review of the test, which one in every ten applicants failed in 2007.

ACBC Immigration and Refugee delegate Bishop Joseph Grech stated: “Our feeling all along was that this wasn't going to do much for people to understand our Australian values. It's ok to know things about Australia and every Australian should know these things. But the citizenship test is about character, values and attitudes, and therefore the test to us doesn't address those issues.”

“And also it puts to a great disadvantage our elderly people and those who come from places where English isn't one of the major languages.

“If we had applied that criteria to many of our migrants who came after the Second World War, we would have prevented many of those people from settling in Australia.”