SYDNEY, Aug 27: The Australian government is considering toughening citizenship rules as part of its anti-terrorism campaign in light of the suicide bombings in London, a minister said on Saturday.
The key measures being considered are doubling the number of years of permanent residency, from two to four, before citizenship is granted and more stringent security checks, including international legal checks.
“Everything is on the table that may be able to tighten our security in an acceptable way,” Citizenship Minister John Cobb told Sky News television.
“We already do conduct checks before anybody is allowed to migrate to Australia in the first place,” Cobb said. “If we need perhaps to look at a longer term of permanent residence before getting citizenship, and perhaps more checks before people are actually allowed to go down that route, well so be it.”
Civil liberties campaigners cautioned against stricter citizenship rules. “This sort of policy could be used to discriminate unfairly against people who the government just doesn’t like because they happen to have visited somewhere or taken some other actions which are innocent and explainable, but don’t fit the government’s policy,” said Cameron Murphy, president of The Council for Civil Liberties.—Reuters
