'Unacceptable' blowout in wait times for Australian citizenship causing distress
The Morrison government is coming under pressure to contain a blowout in processing times for citizenship applications, with the delays overshadowing the Coalition’s proposed revamp of the test to uphold Australian values.
Some applicants for Australian citizenship are waiting more than two years to have their requests processed – a delay that the opposition said was unacceptably long and causing people distress.
The acting immigration minister, Alan Tudge, said there was a backlog at the testing stage of the application process because “more people are applying and citizenship testing was shut down due to Covid-19”.
However, it is understood testing has now resumed in all states and territories except Victoria and the government has increased opening hours at testing sites.
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Latest figures show 90% of applications for Australian citizenship by conferral are decided within 28 months. That has increased from 21 months at the beginning of this year. After that decision is made, the successful applicant needs to attend a ceremony. About 160,000 applications are currently awaiting processing.
Labor’s spokesperson for multicultural affairs, Andrew Giles, said the long wait times “shouldn’t be regarded as acceptable in a multicultural nation” like Australia.
“We’re very concerned. Modern Australia is a nation built on immigration. Anyone who has been at a citizenship ceremony knows how much it means and how every delay is something which causes people and families distress,” Giles said.
He called on the government to do more to reduce the backlog and waiting times.
“It’s growing at a time when obviously people are thinking very hard about what it means to be a citizen,” he said.
“Now more than ever people are seeing the importance of affirming their formal relationship with this country – that’s what I’ve been hearing from people.”
Tudge said the government had put on more staff to clear the backlog in people awaiting citizenship tests.
“About a third of people in the backlog are in Victoria where everything has had to close, including testing centres, due to Covid-19,” he said.
Tudge said the government had also “virtually eliminated the backlog of 90,000 people who were waiting for a citizenship ceremony six months ago”.
“All those people have either become citizens, are booked in for an upcoming ceremony, or have chosen to hold off on being conferred,” he said.
It is understood about 500 more people in Australia are applying for citizenship each week.
There have been about 3,300 applications lodged per week between April and August, up about 22% from the weekly average of 2,700 between July last year and March this year.
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The government said a record number of people became Australian citizens last financial year.
The department of home affairs said it assesses applications on a case-by-case basis and the timeframes can vary because of individual circumstances.
It said reasons for delays can include applicants providing incomplete supporting documents and other agencies taking time to finalise character and national security assessments.
Last month, Tudge used an address to the National Press Club to flag a campaign to encourage permanent residents to take up citizenship, and announce the government would update the citizenship test to include values-based questions.
On Thursday, he spelled out example questions such as, “Do you agree that men and women should be provided equality of opportunity when pursuing their goals and interests?”, and “Should people’s freedom of speech and freedom of expression be respected in Australia?”
