Dutton’s citizenship beat-up

Dr Abul Rizvi puts paid to Dutton's "Trumpy" claims that visas for Gazans are being fast-tracked by Labor.

THE ALLEGATION that a party in government is trying to enable more immigrants, including ineligible immigrants, to vote for it is very Trumpy.

There should be no surprise Dutton is running the line the Labor Government is rushing to get more immigrants to become citizens. But how much of a factual basis is there for Dutton’s recent allegations about citizenship?

Bankstown nurse

Dutton’s attacks on citizenship processes started this month when he questioned how one of the two Bankstown Hospital nurses (a Mr Nadir) in the anti-Israel scandal (the other one was born in Australia) could have received citizenship.

In making this assertion, Dutton at no stage mentions that this nurse received citizenship in 2020 under laws and processes put in place by Dutton himself. That was after the nurse, who was 12 at the time, arrived in Australia.

Around the country, communities are uniting against Peter Dutton's proposed citizenship changes #StopDuttonsLaw pic.twitter.com/9l4VoALlhg
— Colour Code (@colourcodeorgau) July 4, 2017

(Then Immigration Minister Peter Dutton changed citizenship laws and processes in 2017)

According to the Australian Financial Review, Dutton has:

'...demanded an investigation into how Mr Nadir gained his citizenship.'

He doesn’t explain what he thinks went wrong with the system, why changes to citizenship processes – including the additional identity and character checks he put in place – were inadequate or what he would change in future.

It should be noted that from 2014-15, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) intensified identity and character checking for citizenship applications. That led to a massive blowout in citizenship processing times and a huge backlog of unprocessed citizenship applications (applications made after sitting and passing a citizenship test).

That appears to have been a driver of an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) audit that reported in June 2015, ‘Verifying Identity in the Citizenship Program’,which led to a number of critical recommendations to both improve the rigour of checking as well as the efficiency of processing to help clear the backlog.

Visa backlog a sign of weak border control

Despite all its tough talk on border control, the Government is overwhelmed with a backlog of visas that has built up over the years.

Complaints about the blowout in processing times continued and the Commonwealth Ombudsman took up the issue in 2017. It noted the additional checking targeted a relatively small portion of citizenship applicants including applicants:

with freedom of information (FOI) name/date of birth/place of birth changes;
from Afghanistan who were former Irregular Maritime Arrivals (IMAs);
who were former Irregular Air Arrivals (IAAs);
who were unaccompanied humanitarian arrivals;
who are orphan relative/last remaining relatives;
who are humanitarian cases sponsored by an IMA or former IMA; and
who are family cases sponsored by an IMA or former IMA.

DHA provided the Ombudsman with ten examples of cases where persons had obtained Australian citizenship in earlier years who it considered had provided inconsistent, incorrect, false and/or fraudulent information to the department about their claimed identity. Of the ten, seven arrived as IMAs, the others arrived in Australia with visas.

Since the implementation of the additional identity and character checks, there have been few (possibly no) reports of a resulting increase in citizenship refusals based on identity/character. Certainly, I have been unable to find any appeals against such refusals to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal/Administrative Review Tribunal (ART).

So, we don’t know if this additional checking has made any difference other than a blowout in processing times and a massive backlog.

Dutton also introduced a more rigorous online citizenship test (a series of questions about the rights and responsibilities of Australian citizenship) that is conducted in English. His successors introduced the requirement for new citizens to commit to an "Australian values" statement.

Mr Nadir went through these processes when he received citizenship in 2020. In what way Dutton considers these processes are now inadequate is not clear.

It is entirely possible Dutton has no idea what changes he would make and may simply be interested in political fulmination that he presumably hopes would cast the Albanese Government in a negative light — even though it was his own citizenship processes that Dutton was implicitly criticising.

Dutton’s Gaza gaffe prompts Paterson policy pickle

Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson has again shown the Coalition's ignorance toward immigration policy following suggestions for Palestinian refugees.

Was citizenship for Gazans fast-tracked?

Dutton has alleged the Government has been fast-tracking visas for Gazans who arrived on visitor visas in 2023 and 2024.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

'Peter Dutton has accused Labor of fast-tracking Australian citizenship for people who fled Gaza to win votes in marginal seats at the upcoming election.'

Knowing he was being interviewed on Sky News by Israeli Government advocate Sharri Markson, Dutton could be confident he could make this easily disprovable claim without fear of contradiction. Markson and her audience lapped it up.

To get citizenship, the Gazans who arrived on visitor visas in 2023 and 2024 would need to do the following:

Lodge asylum applications and have these processed and approved, including again being tested for character and security. Given the massive asylum backlog (largely Dutton’s own fault), that is a process that would take many months if not more than a year.
Meet the four-year residence requirement to be able to apply for citizenship.
Sit and pass the online citizenship test which is conducted in quite high-level English.
Again meet all identity, character and security checking requirements.

Only after successfully undertaking all these processes would the Gazans be eligible to attend a citizenship ceremony. There is little chance the Gazans who arrived on visitor visas in 2023 and 2024 would be able to get citizenship much before 2027 or 2028 (and most likely later).

Dutton would know this better than most but was happy to mislead the Sky audience.

Dutton’s deportation claims contradicted by his own record

While Peter Dutton beats his chest over the Coalition's strong-arm approach to deporting criminal non-citizens, in reality, he has tarnished Australia's international reputation.

Are citizenship ceremonies being rushed?

If citizenship ceremonies were genuinely being rushed as Dutton and the Murdoch press are alleging, the number of people getting citizenship would be significantly faster than the average through the year.

In 2022-23, 192,947 people received Australian citizenship. That number in 2023-24 and 2024-25 would be higher given the larger migration and humanitarian programs and the fact New Zealand citizens now have a direct pathway to Australian citizenship.

Thus on average, the number of people getting citizenship each year would now likely be closer to 200,000 or more. That means over 16,000 per month. If the Government is granting 12,500 people citizenship over a three-week period to early March, that would not seem out of the ordinary.

Hard to see what the fuss is about.

Since Australia's current citizenship process was created by Dutton, accountability for the visa system rests with him. Dr Abul Rizvi analyses recent "Trumpy" claims by Dutton that visas for Gazans are being fast-tracked.

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Dr Abul Rizvi is an Independent Australia columnist and a former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration. You can follow Abul on Twitter @RizviAbul and Bluesky @abulrizvi.bsky.social.