Sunday 29th of December 2024

playing pauline .....

From our ABC .....

Howard yet to decide on citizenship tests

The Prime Minister says the Government has not decided whether migrants will be forced to take English classes when they arrive in Australia.

John Howard says a Government discussion paper, which is to be released soon, will canvas a range of issues.

The issues include a test for citizenship and English language training.

Mr Howard says there are already free English classes for migrants and he is a strong supporter of everybody learning the language as soon as possible.

"What we are looking at is a discussion on a test for citizenship and I think that's a very good idea and I'm very much in favour of it and we've been working on it for some months," he said.

bomber's awstraylen values .....

from The Chaser …..

‘Kim Beazley is trying to forge a “Pact with Middle Australia” in an attempt to seize John Howard’s most successful electoral territory. In other words, he wants to outdo Howard at pandering to battlers’ customary mild xenophobia.

To this end, he’s announced plans to make visitors to Australia sign a statement promising to respect Australian values. Here’s what an accurate statement about Australian values might look like.’

Respecting Middle Australia's Real Values

A shoo in...

From our ABC

Howard's citizenship proposals 'unfair'
The Federal Opposition has criticised a proposal to make migrants wait four years instead of three before becoming eligible for Australian citizenship.

Prime Minister John Howard has outlined plans to toughen citizenship rules, which include making it compulsory for migrants to pass an English language test before becoming Australians.

Mr Howard has told Southern Cross Radio it will not make it any harder for those "fair dinkum" about becoming citizens.

etc....

Gus: Fair dinkum, as long as one drives a car at barely subsonic speeds, can wrestle a croc in a chicken suit (not the croc, but one is), as long as one can utter "Crickey" while playing a straight bat on a pitch and shout "Bloody Hell" while being naked on a tropical beach burning one's feet on the hot sand (to become warmer in years to come) one is a shoo in... by decree.

Preserving our customs

A Mid-Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Trial

The ad in The Australian (Sep 15th) is more informative.

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Customs is Australia's primary border protection agency. For this purpose our border extends into Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone where we have a key role in addressing threats to our environment.
In performing our role we work closely with a range of agencies, often exercising powers on their behalf, at other times working with them to complement each other's capabilities and powers.
Together we are called upon to provide a sense of security to the community, supporting the continuation of the Australian lifestyle.
We are present at the border because of our community protection role. At the same time the community has reasonable expectations about ease of travel and doing business. If our approaches to border security are unreasonable and compromise those expectations we will lose the community's support and, as a result, our ability to perform our role. Facilitating movement of legitimate travellers and goods is therefore essential.
This role is both important and challenging in today's environment.

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The drones will be equipped with the latest Dulux colour chart, and a laser death-ray.