Australian citizenship changes explainer: Here is what you need to know

Citizenship is an important mechanism to foster integration in Australia

The federal government today announced three broad changes to the criteria for Australian citizenship. These are:

• a new residence requirement;
• a new process for determining an applicant’s integration into the community; and
• changes to the citizenship test.

Citizenship is an important mechanism to foster integration and make people feel fully connected and committed to Australia. There is a risk, however, that if citizenship is too hard to attain, a two-tier system of permanent residency will develop in Australia: those who are full citizens, and those who failed to become citizens – though they are permanent residents.

Change in residence requirement

The proposed