Today, the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) made a submission to the Government’s consultation on Australian citizenship. You can read the submission here.
“Citizenship is symbolic of acceptance into the Australian community and is highly valued amongst immigrant groups”, says Joe Caputo, FECCA Chair. “FECCA highlights the importance of citizenship policy to achieving and maintaining social cohesion in the Australian community”.
FECCA opposes the discriminatory and unnecessary proposed changes to the citizenship test, pledge and eligibility criteria which are included in the Government’s citizenship discussion paper. Joe Caputo maintains, “A greater emphasis should be placed on civics and citizenship education as part of the process of attaining Australian citizenship, in place of the citizenship test; which is a one-off test where an individual can only achieve a pass or fail”.
FECCA has not addressed the revocation of citizenship for dual nationals engaged in terrorism in this submission, and will instead make a submission on this issue to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security inquiry into the Australian Citizenship Amendment (Allegiance to Australia) Bill 2015 for consideration.
Media Comments: FECCA Office – (02) 6282 5755, media@fecca.org.au.