Roberta2

Canada seems to be six years.

How long does it take PRs to be eligible for citizenship in "comparable countries"? e.g. Canada, UK, US. I don't know the answer, but it very likely to be a question asked by the crossbench senators.

Not yet clear. While parliament is supposed to rise tonight, the Senate will be debating the education Bill late into the night, probably - but it's not unheard of for the Senate to continue to sit on the Friday. In that case, the numbers in the Senate may be there to pass the Bill in amended form if Dutton is willing to make enough changes.

It's still possible a deal will be struck by the end of this week. The Gonski 2 education reforms debate starts in the Senate today; IF a deal can be struck there, it's possible there will still be time and energy for a compromise on the citizenship changes. The Senate is supposed to rise Thursday night, but it's not unprecedented for it to sit on the Friday.

Labor having said it will not support these changes, the government has decided not to try its luck with the Senate - especially with the fight over education funding taking all the time and energy now. Parliament sits again 8-17 August. Until then, yes everything will be frozen. The issue could be hived off to a Senate committee, possibly.

A lot of horse trading is taking place. Without the support of the ALP and the Greens, the Government will need the support of 10 of the 12 crossbenchers in the Senate. Difficult but not impossible - and of course the Government will have to be willing to make changes to get the Bill (in some form) across the line.

The Greens hold 9 Senate seats. The government has 29; it needs 39 to pass a Bill. So if the ALP and the Greens won't pass this Bill, the government has to get the support of 10 of the 12 crossbenchers. Like herding cats. Hanson's One Nation has 4 seats; her support is assured on this. IF the ALP supports some amended version of the Bill, the Senate becomes irrelevant. The outcome could well hinge on the ALP Caucus meeting some time early next week. Among other things, the Caucus members from Queensland will be very wary of conceding ground to Hanson - State elections are due fairly soon, and she is polling strongly in regional and rural seats where unemployment is high and job prospects generally gloomy.

The union movement is not a monolith either. The CMFEU and the AWU are rarely on the same page, for example. As to Labor and the Greens, they are at daggers drawn over Gonski 2 - and the Greens are also internally divided on that one. All good fun, but outcomes hard to predict. All you can say for sure is that they will all be pretty tired by the end of next week!

There are often problems when such people go into aged care if/when they cannot communicate with the staff. Obviously, the families can't be there all the time to interpret. Only a few migrant communities are big enough to deal with this problem.

The Parliamentary Winter session ends 22 June. A lot of contentious Bills, including this one, are likely to go to the wire, but that's pretty standard. It's not uncommon for parliament to sit late into the night, or even to have a session on the Friday if necessary.

Yes. Otherwise the ALP and the Greens would be howling about it, no?

I was wrong on the timing. The ALP caucus is meeting next week to deliberate on this bill, so obviously it's going to take a bit longer.

It's a bit confusing, but technically this Bill is to amend - in effect replace - two previous Acts of Parliament. Next stage is for the Opposition, the Greens and possibly independent Members of the House of Representatives to propose their own amendments. After that, it's a process of negotiation(haggling) to see whether the Government can get this Bill (as amended) passed in the lower house, where it has only a one seat majority. If the ALP supports an amended version of the bill, it will pass through the Senate without further amendments because the crossbenchers will not be able to stop it.

Basically, four Australians killed by terrorists in Australia, and at least a dozen plots foiled. Extra time to check up on those who already have PR, since once they have citizenship it is much harder to deport them. Dual citizens can be deported, but you can't deport anyone who has become an Australian citizen and renounced his/her former citizenship. The Lindt cafe siege also showed a lot of flaws in the system re Momis, especially the lack of effective communication among various state agencies and judicial systems. Call it all a loss of innocence if you like.

I recently met a Greek lady who has been here for six decades, and barely speaks English. She lives in inner Brisbane where there are still enough Greek speakers so that she has never felt the need to learn English. This does of course mean she is isolated as far as the wider community is concerned- not sure how well she can communicate with her own grandchildren. She is so old now that she will be exempt from any testing. But we need to do better - both in requiring higher levels of English, and providing more resources to help people.

All too familiar, unfortunately. Academics (I used to be one) are often under pressure to pass students with inadequate English. There is every incentive just to hold your nose and pass them! Plagiarism is also rife, despite efforts to control it. Some of our universities now depend on international students for 40% of their income.

It's normal practice. Both major parties do it when in government, and it won't change. It is not backdating, because they announced on 20th April that applications made after 20 April would not be processed until a new law was in place. There are only three sitting days left in this parliamentary session after today- although it's not unlikely both houses will sit on Friday because there is a raft of contentious bills still going through, of which the proposed change to citizenship laws is only one. If the government makes enough concessions to meet ALP concerns, the Senate will be irrelevant. That applies to all these bills, of course.

Possibly true. Totally irrelevant.

It says "specified English language studies at a recognised Australian education institution". That does not necessarily mean that students from non English speaking countries who graduate from Australian universities will be exempt - unless they have been studying English as a language. Studying English and studying in English are not the same. (Prepositions can be vitally important in English.) Employers are constantly complaining of the poor English language skills of many international students who are allowed to graduate from our universities. (It's all bums on seats now.)

The leading sources of immigration are China, India and the UK.

Tend to agree. Shorten has good reason not to allow too much daylight between himself and Turnbull on these issues, even if Turnbull is moving to the right in order to fend off the Abbott wing in his own party, as well as One Nation, Cory Bernardi etc. PR's can be deported if shown to be involved in terrorist and/or criminal activity (think Apex gang in Melbourne for example) ; Citizens can't. So why not allow four years instead of one year when assessing citizenship applications from PRs? (Any one know how long it takes in the UK?) That is what most Australians are probably going to focus on. Possibly some watering down of the proposed English language requirements - unless a lot more resources are thrown in to help people learn English. Resolutely monolingual themselves, most Australians don't understand how difficult English is to learn. Personally, I don't care for the way Turnbull is throwing the "Australian patriot" bit around; far too redolent of Trump's America. Positively "un-Australian". Politicians always want to drape themselves in the flag though. Abbott used to prefer at least six as a backdrop.

Depends what happens in parliament, obviously. It rises at the end of next week,

I'll bet bills for all these changes have been drafted. They would have to be, with parliament resuming this week. Then with the First Reading, they will become public. With all the other issues going on, they might not attract much media attention.

Parliament resumes this week to consider the Budget. Labour has continued to allow no daylight between itself and the Coalition - even on the asylum seeker issue, which is the most contentious of all issues to do with immigration, citizenship, visas etc. That is because Labour knows that there is broad popular support for all these measures. Albanese, - the leader of the left faction, has poked his head up recently - just to remind everyone he is still in the wings. But he won't take on Shorten on these issues.